‘Queengate’ photographer snaps 90th birthday shots, showing monarch surrounded by family (and corgis)

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This handout portrait picture taken by US photographer Annie Liebovitz shows Queen Elizabeth II with her daughter Princess Anne in the White Drawing Room of Windsor Castle in Windsor. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:50am, 21 Apr 2016Updated: 10:41am, 21 Apr 2016

Queen Elizabeth’s official 90th birthday portraits released Thursday were taken by the celebrity photographer at the centre of one of the fiercest recent controversies to hit Britain’s monarchy.

Annie Leibovitz has shot three relaxed images featuring the queen, her family and her dogs, which were released by Buckingham Palace to mark the big day.

The US photographer was invited back nine years after a row over footage shot for a documentary on the BBC, which showed Leibovitz asking the queen to remove her tiara, drawing a frosty response.

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The new pictures were taken in recent weeks at Windsor Castle, the queen’s residence west of London.

One shows the monarch standing on garden steps with four of her dogs – corgis Willow and Holly and dorgies (dachshund-corgi crosses) Vulcan and Candy.

Queen Elizabeth II is seen walking in the private grounds of Windsor Castle, with four of her dogs: clockwise from top left Willow, Vulcan, Candy and Holly. Photo: AP

Another shows her with five of her great-grandchildren, including Prince George and Princess Charlotte, and two of her grandchildren.

In this shot, Mia Tindall - daughter of the queen’s granddaughter Zara and her former rugby player husband Mike Tindall - is holding the queen’s handbag.

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