I quite like this picture of a street near the Barbican, London, at night, mainly because it has that three o'clock in the morning feel to it. All that's missing is a newspaper billowing down the street and the sound of a lone saxophone.

Barbican at night: going nowhere fastBut there's more to it than that. If you notice, the traffic lights in both directions are on the stop signal, meaning that no traffic can proceed. In fact, because of this I used the photograph to illustrate the cover of an edition of Computers in Classrooms which featured an article entitled "All Systems Stop?".

Look further, and you'll discover other facets of the picture which could make useful starting points for discussion. To start with, there are all those lights on in offices -- bear in mind this was taken on a Saturday night -- which has obvious implications for energy consumption.

The double yellow lines next to the kerb, indicating no parking at any time, plus the temporary traffic lights, could be used as a starting point for a discussion about modelling, in the context of traffic management.

On a lighter level, the colours, shadows and reflections seen in the photograph might prove a useful starting point.

What other aspects of the photo could be useful to you, your pupils or you colleagues? What photos do you have which could complement this one? What sort of assignment could you set your pupils based on it?

This was the last of the mini-series called In The Picture. I hope you've found it useful. You can see the others by clicking here. There is also the Friday Photo series which you may find interesting.