Grace Bailey’s work is currently on display on the fifth floor of the Radisson Blu Hotel.
Grace, an operating department practitioner and part-time scuba instructor at the Bouley Bay Dive School, has been scuba diving since December 2016.
She first tried it when she was on holiday in New Zealand, and it immediately become her passion.
Pictured: Grace Bailey, an operating department practitioner and part-time scuba instructor at the Bouley Bay Dive School.
Her love of underwater photography started soon afterwards.
“Back in the day I’d always have my GoPro with me, then I saw someone with a proper camera and I thought, my GoPro looked a bit feeble so in 2019 decided to go for it and buy some real equipment,” she explained.
Since then, Grace has made it her mission to capture as much of Jersey’s teeming marine life as possible.
“We’re definitely not the Maldives, but people don’t realise the life we have… You know, the ocean is in a state, we’re trying to save it and everyone’s always looking out for the big creatures, sharks and whales, but people always forget that Jersey is quite special.
“Sometimes when I show people my photos they don’t believe me! They always ask, you took that in Jersey?”
Grace has a particular passion for macrophotography or extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects.
“I like to take photos of all things little, all things close-up. The challenge of searching for those little creatures is part of the fun! I can often spend an entire dive on one rockface waiting.”
Grace’s particular favourites are the nudibranchs – or, as she calls them, the “flamboyant sea slugs”.
There are more than 3,000 varieties of nudibranchs – all of which come in their own shapes and sizes.
At only 10cm long, they are notable for their wild and exotic colours. These colours, according to Grace, are one of the greatest challenges for an underwater photographer.
Pictured: A “flamboyant sea slug”.
“The deeper you go, the less colour you can see. Water absorbs colour, and the first colour to go is red.”
To compensate, Grace has invested in some strobes, attached to her camera by fibre optic cables which provide her with a powerful flash to bring the spectrum of colours to life at the bottom of the sea.
“I used to hold up a torch and shine it on the creature while holding the camera. Now, the strobes do the work for me.”
Grace hopes her photography will help to “increase awareness of the fragility of our blue planet and to educate people about our diverse marine life.”
She also shares her photos with Seasearch UK, which aims to catalogue and track Marine life across the UK.
LEARN MORE…
Grace will be giving a talk on her photography at the Jersey Museum on 11 May at 18:00.