It’s late and dark, and I’m tired. So as I was going through the photos I took today, I decided on this gloomy lamppost shot I took earlier this evening for my Photo A Day image.

We took our daughter to a local children’s museum tonight, and they had a cool garden area that we decided to walk through before heading home. They had these funky old lampposts that gave off such a cool glow. I couldn’t resist taking a photo to see what my point-and-shoot camera could come up with in the near dark. I only had time to adjust the white balance setting to cloudy, which evened tones enough for my liking, before my daughter was off and running. So I knew I’d have to snap a couple quick shots right then and work with what I got later.

Not surprisingly, the photos were unimpressive because I didn’t have time to set the shot up for optimal color. Also, it was a really difficult time of evening for taking good photos without a tripod. So I loaded these photos into Gimp when I got home (Photoshop or any other image editing software would work, too) and messed with the color balance until I came up with some versions that were much more interesting.

The first one is fun because I created a second layer and used a gradient of two colors to give the image a sunset feel. The second I love because of the intense color–it almost feels like dawn. I can’t decide which one I like better, so I’m leaving it up to you all. Which photo should be my day 6 image?