Queen Elizabeth II, then Princess, was all smiles for the camera, reminisces The Times veteran photographer Frank Attard, zooming down memory lane to the time when she visited Malta frequently between 1949 and 1951.

On the other hand, Prince Philip, who served here with the Royal Navy during that time, did not appear to be too camera-friendly and would immediately wear his sunglasses when the cameras started clicking, Mr Attard recalls.

"Of course, she was not just smiling at me," he laughs. "In fact, I'm sure she didn't even notice me."

Mr Attard, who has won numerous photographic awards and accolades during his 55-year career at The Times, has fond recollections of the Queen, describing her as "so very nice", particularly due to her perpetual smile and interaction with the lens.

It was work, but he enjoyed every minute of it at The Times, where he started out as a paperboy during WWII, moving on to photographing anything from sports to funerals to social parties. And he was fortunate to attend a number of those...

"Often, photographers were not allowed at certain coverages and a pool would be organised," he explains. Only one would have access and Mr Attard, 79, was often the chosen one. His photographs of Queen Elizabeth were then distributed among the many journalists and sent to the various agencies overseas.

Mr Attard has a stack of photos of the royal couple and he has kept most of them from his early days at The Times.

One of his images that did the rounds in the international press, shot in 1949, was unofficially presented to the Queen and her husband by the British High Commissioner Nick Archer as an anniversary gift yesterday.

Mr Attard yesterday expressed his satisfaction at the fact that his photograph - which portrays the couple on their arrival in Malta for the first time - was chosen by the High Commissioner.

Back then, it had appeared on the front page of The Times and Mr Attard remembers being told that the Queen had liked it.

"Her lady-in-waiting had called the newspaper's directors, asking for about six copies," he recalls. If she had misplaced them, she now has another.

"I love Mr Attard's work," said Mr Archer of his appropriate choice of gift. "I exhibited his pictures of the Queen at the villa for her birthday, and chose this particular image because it represents her and the Duke of Edinburgh's unity, love and beauty."

It is not the first time one of Mr Attard's photographs has made it into the Queen's hands in some form or another: A watercolour painting was created from a picture of his, dating back to around 1954, depicting Lord and Lady Mountbatten, with Prince Charles and Princess Anne, when they were brought to Malta for the first time, aged three and four.

It was presented to the Queen during her last visit to Malta in 2005.

In 2003, three of Mr Attard's photographs of Queen Elizabeth were turned into stamps, which he later sent to her.

Thanking him on her behalf, her lady-in-waiting had written to Mr Attard, expressing her appreciation and pointing out how kind of him it was to send her the set of stamps.

In the letter, Mr Attard proudly reads out, she speaks of the Queen's "happy memories of Malta" ... which may have been relived and rekindled yesterday.

It does not take much to jog Mr Attard's memory and the anecdotes of over half a century ago start rolling out.

He remembers shooting the Queen dancing, and that photographers would be allocated a limited amount of time to do so.

"She would go out dancing to Queen's Hall in Sliema, and we would be allowed to take no more than one photo of her dancing with a sailor and one of Prince Philip dancing with a Wren!

"There would be someone in charge with a stopwatch - just two minutes and he would send us out!"

The memories abound and Mr Attard calls back as more sovereign recollections spring to mind.

He remembers when the Queen came to The Times premises in St Paul's Street, Valletta, to watch the Good Friday procession from the balcony of the former building. "But we took no photos that time," he points out.

"At a social party for the press, I told her that I always remembered her on Christmas Day.

"She asked why and I said it was because Mabel Strickland (then owner of the paper) used to send her dozens and dozens of oranges from her villa for Christmas lunch. She started laughing..." he enthuses.

Other little snippets of the couple's life in Malta include images of Prince Philip driving his car, while Princess Elizabeth used to film her surroundings with her 8mm cine camera.

"She would go to watch Prince Philip play polo at Marsa and film him... And she would also go to the cinema - the Warner Theatre in Qormi," Mr Attard calls back again to say, probably remembering more than the Queen herself.