
NOVEMBER 2004 – The setting sun illuminates the waterfront of El Gouna in Egypt. © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com
The story behind the image
In 2004 we travelled to Egypt (again.) This time we opted for El Gouna, a beautiful village situated at the Red Sea. If offers all the amenities you’d be expecting from a village that successfully could make the transition from fishing village to popular tourist destination.
The catch you ask?
Well, the village has never been a fishign village. It had been developed since the late 1980s. The entire location had been just desert before and was planned from scratch at the drawing board. (Wikipedia has more information on the history of El Gouna.)
Having said that, I think the owners, planners and architects did a terrific job. They avoided all the terrible mistakes of other popular tourist destinations (like some coastal villages in Spain or Italy) and created an authentic atmosphere that matches the tourists expectations.
I shot this image with my tiny Sony P&S camera and am still amazed at the image quality. This shot required only light editing and captured the awesome mood very well. (Admittedly, the image size is tiny by today’s standards.) Love it.
Design ideas



The high resolution image
| Capture Date | 24-NOV-2004, 16:25 |
| Location | El Gouna, Egypt |
| Camera | Sony DSC-P72 |
| Lens | Built-in |
| ISO | 100 |
| Exposure | 1/125 sec at f/9 |
| Digital Image Source Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Dimensions | 1536 x 2048 Pixels |
| Copyright | © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |