[Signed Photograph of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II and H.R.H. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,

British society photographer Marcus Adams took a number of portraits of the future Queen Elizabeth II, from the years spanning her birth through to adulthood. Fascinating as these images are in themselves, however, they are made yet more interesting by the photographer's use of the camera.

Known primarily for his portraits of children, it was Adams who photographed the first official portraits of the Duchess of York and Princess Elizabeth (later to become the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth II), in 1926. It was also his 1934 photograph of an eight-year-old Princess Elizabeth that was chosen to be used as the portrait for a series of Canadian $20 banknotes in 1935.

In a working relationship that spanned three decades, Adams was still a favoured photographer of the Royal Family as late as the 1950s. Like her mother before her, the Queen continued employing Adams to photograph her own children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne. as seem here, taken at Balmoral Castle.

An informal black & white photograph of Queen Elizabeth II with Prince Philip, Prince Charles (now King Charles) and Princess Anne, signed on the mount 'Elizabeth R' and 'Philip', dated 1955, taken by Marcus Adams, the Royal Family seated or standing on a low wall in the garden of Balmoral Castle, Scotland; with contemporary gilt metal frame, overall size; 243 x 183 mm.