Although I didn't do the coloring, I'll defend it. Technically it doesn't defy them. As you should know, light isn't omni-directional, it comes from many directions and bounces off things. Thus, if you have something thin and far away from the ground, you'll have diffused light from different directions easily getting around the stick and thus no shadow forms. As you can see the body's shadow is blurry, a product of the diffusion. If the hand is that faint and shadow so blurred, then the stick won't be visible at all.
The real questoin would be why the shadow is behind him, if the sun is also.