My eyes keep jumping from the tree to the shadow and back and I just want to turn around to see where the casting light is coming from. Very interesting. Again I could spot this as one of yours straight away, in fact I can do that very often now with all the contributors to stills, though I am not sure I could explain the individual styles or what have you.
I take the use of the word subtle above to refer to the soft nature of the shadow. In fact the pole next to the trunk in the shadow, whilst looking like a forked trunk, is not a representation of the tripod support. In terms of what the picture is about, I am drawn to look more at the mechanics of Japanese tree support than to the shadow, although wondering how a tripod might cast its shadow does take the eye back and forth between bamboo and shadow. My feel about this is that the composition falls between two stools (on their tripod legs!): showing the overall scene and optimising the shapes of the bamboo and the shadows. The riser bottom right detracts slightly. But at the gardening level, it is a very interesting shot.
