From what I understand growing block universe theory of time is different in that more and more spacetime is coming into being, Here we are talking about 4 D objects passing through a 3D space. For example if a cube (3D object) is passing through a plane (2 D space), some hypothetical 2 D...
Is it possible that our 3D universe is just a shadow in 3D space of 4D or higher dimensional reality? And we are limited in our perception of it by our 3-dimensionality. In other words like Flatlanders would just see s square of a cube sitting on the plane or passing through the plane...
Looking now again at your first pic. it seems that dark areas are in alignment with thicker portions of the green colored glass. Which means that this portion is simply absorbing more of the light, and not acting as a lens.
I am an experimental guy :) . Try now to cover different parts of the green glass to se from which portion the most of the reflections on the floor are coming. I suppose that that will be from the part "south" of the equator. How does this part look like?