The above image is taken from Google Earth and represents a section of downtown Seattle.

Now, either:
  • Seattle has buildings which amazingly grow sideways in different directions - something I inexplicably failed to notice while walking around town;
  • or, this image is a well-done, seamless splice of multiple images taken from different positions in the sky but at the very same time of day, so that shadows are cast in the same direction;
  • or, this image is an even better done, seamless splice of multiple images where shadows have been corrected to all point in the same direction.
What gives? Why would Google go to the effort of seamlessly splicing images and fixing shadows? And if they did not, how come the buildings that appear as from the same image are slanted in different directions, as if they were pictured from different vantage points?