Repeatedly I see treads with legitimate complaints about diving in guided groups. Unguided diving on intact housereefs is a good alternative to escape this guide/peer pressure. I greatly enjoy to be stationary for a week or even longer and to go for UW photos whenever I want, stay as long as I like UW at a single spot and come back repeatedly to the same spot at different times of the day at different lighting conditions and activity phases of the animals. Not that I would say that such a location is worth to travel around half of the globe and stay just there, but for UW-photographers from Europe, the Red Sea is practically in our neighborhood and such a location can easily be booked in combination with Safari trips (preferentially dedicated UW-photographer Safaris)...
Here I report about the Rohanou Beach Resort, that is located just between Hurghada and Marsa Alam and can be reached almost equally well from both airports (https://www.google.at/maps/place/Rohanou+Beach+Resort/@26.0251668,34.3240436,5120m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m9!3m8!1s0x144cc623bf59e185:0x69b138953037c755!5m2!4m1!1i2!8m2!3d26.0251668!4d34.3240436!16s). We have visited this resort several times since 2017 and I find it a good place to take photos UW. It is a simple, but nice, 3*-4* accommodation providing tasty and non-sickening half board or full board and can bee booked, also including flight, for little money via several internet platforms:
The resort with diving base (called "Wonderful Dive") is located at a small and sheltered bay (have a closeup look at the google link provided above). Therefore diving/snorkeling is possible all over the year at almost every weather condition. The diving base also organizes dive trips by Jeep or dayboat, but so far we never have participated since the housreef is more then enough for us. Starting from advanced divers certification (e.g. PADI AOWD or CMAS 2*) and after a first "check-dive", divers can go for unguided dives on the housereef as long and as often they desire, from sunrise until sunset. To cover longer distances at the housreef, a Zodiak is available, except in the early morning before the breakfast. Diving at the housreef is simple, after registration at a list in the divingbase one goes down the jetty. At the end of the jetty bottles with compressed air or Nitrox are located. After additional buerocracy, i.e. measuring oxygen content of Nitrox, and filling out additional forms, the submersion can begin. Here is a view from the divingbase to the jetty:
..
Ideally the UW-photographer brings a slave with her/him that acts as a buddy, supervises and guides the dive and carries tiresome, but desired, additional equipment. In the early days, when only Lisi, my wife, was an UW-photographer this was my part 
, but since 2017 I have my own rig. Also two UW-photographers are a perfect combination. In lack of a buddy, one could look for another dive partner on site or take a personal guide from the diving base that can be booked for little money...
The following photos are from the part of the housreef that can be reached without efforts by entering and exiting directly from the Jetty:
School of Red Sea füsiliers (Caesio suevica).
A school of Loudmouth makerels (Rastreliger kanagurta) is stationary and can be seen on many dives.
The housreef is also good for macro photography:
A group of purple eyed coral gobies (Bryaninops natans).
At the very end of the bay, in shallow waters, ghost pipefish (Solenostomus cyanopterus) can be spotted.
Also guided and unguided nightdives are possible on several evenings of the week:
Reticulated hinge-back shrimp (Cinetorhynchus reticulatis) at night.
The south part of the housereef is called Zerib Kebir. It is best reached by Zodiak and the exit is at the jetty. This dive contains nice caves and grottos. For this dive we prefer to take a private guide, not only to find our way in, but also our way out 
:
Another diving spot of high quality for UW-photographers is "Nemo City". This is a divespot in the north, outside the bay, where at about 30m depth dozends of splendor anemonies (Heteracta magnifica) live together with numerous clownfish (Amphiprion bicinctus), domino damsels (Dascyllus trimaculatus) and other partners in symbiosis. This spot is reached by Zodiak and one can dive all the long way back to the jetty or alternatively set a signal buoy and get picked up again:
I hope this trip report is of interest for other UW-photographers, that are from time to time in this region. Comments on the photos are highly welcomed, as well as on the compression procedure (I reduced the long edge to 1024 or 1280 pixels and the adjusted the JPG compression to give files between 90kB - 100kB)...
Wolfgang
