Just some notes: The laptop appears to be laying with the screen down. That would explain why the cord is coming out of the panel pointing up. I do this all of the time with my laptop. No clue why the cord disappears though. Of all things, seems to be a dumb item to photoshop. Same with his right hand. Why photoshop that?

Re: Time of day. Cameras like to forget what time it is all of the time. After a couple of times of setting the time I just forget about it and give up.

Overall the photo looks really bright. Like some kind of contrast correction has happened. Typically pictures with flash like to really highlight the center of the image and leave everything else dark. This flash highlight could possibly explain the flagpole, but without some photoediting the background would look awful and lack detail. The flash is also usually located on the upper left of the camera lens, so if any shadows are cast by the flash they should be pointing to the right, while in this image they're pointed to the left.