Boardwalks again, different direction

I wasn't happy with my shadows on the boardwalk yesterday, so thought I'd do another similar pic and see if I could improve. It's a better view of the boardwalk, but not such  nice trees I don't think. 

I prefer the shadow, but it's still not what I was trying to get. Actually, I have no idea what I'm trying to get which may be apart of the problem. I don't quite know what kind of style I'm aiming for, I'm hoping a nice one will just magically appear one day. One of the things I'd like to do better is a balance between thick paint and washier paint, but I keep going over areas and therefore lose any areas of thinner paint. But then it is quite nice to smear on nice thick stuff.