Poinsettia Plants (Euphorbia pulcherrima) Can Become Humongous

Today I was out on Tsuken Island off the east coast of Okinawa, Japan.

For a couple of years I've been meaning to shoot one of these Poinsettia Plants.

Not the little potted things you see on sale at Christmas time around the globe,  I'm talking about the ones that get over 6 feet tall (180cm plus).  This isn't the largest one I've ever seen but,  it came in handy.  That's me in the photo and I'm shooting a sacred site.  I'm just a tad under 6 feet tall (179cm) when I ain't wearing my flipflops.  I didn't have to worry about bumpimg into those flowers because the plant is humongous.  They have even taller poinsettia plants on these islands.

One of these days I'll find a bigger one for you to see.  That guy I've been calling RyukyuRu took this shot.  It was the only way I could get him to stay still for a few seconds.  I handed him my other camera, the CANON G12 and told him I need a picture of me next to a poinsettia for my blog.

He runs this blog called MAP IT OKINAWA that has us running all over this island and any other island that belongs to Okinawa and probably won't quit until he maps the whole Ryukyu Island Chain.

Now, I ain't complainin or nuthin like that.  Just, everytime we come across a humongous poinsettia plant I'll be asking him to stop and shoot a photo.  Just so my tired old bones can get a break !

LEARN MORE ABOUT POINSETTIA PLANTS

Flower Lovers, Are These Humongous Coleus Plants or What ?

Zooming up the highway as if we were a couple of escaped convicts, THE GOYA REPUBLIC GUY and I almost missed these flower thingies today.  It's Wednesday in Okinawa, Japan and that means get-as-far-away-as-fast-as-you-can-with-the-cameras-before-a-missus-starts-thinking-of -things-to-do-around-the-house.

Cruising at what some folks would consider to be a legal speed, I spotted these bright colored plants.  I'm not sure if they should be called flowers.  Some of them were the size of pumpkins.

When we decelerated enough to turn around and park the batmobile I grabbed two cameras and ran across HWY58.  This shot was taken with the Pentax K5 at f/11  1/500  ISO 400.

Then, I approached the things from the south to snap this photo using the Canon G12 at f/8   1/60  ISO 100.

Now, I might not know my flowers and I'm just guessing these critters are some kind of humongous Coleus Plants. 

Cameras, I know a little bit about so, I'm starting to run that G12 through some tests.

The first thing I did was get it out of AUTO MODE and switch to RAW FILES.

This photo was taken with the K5 on a tripod, using a shutter release cable and standing on the highway where motorcycles were buzzing by me at twice the speed of Doc's batmobile.

It was also a bit windy so, I shot the Pentax at f/8  1/400  ISO 200.

Using the Canon G12, handheld and resting on top of the Pentax mounted on the tripod, I shot this at f/3.5  1/500  ISO 100.

Just in case you haven't already guessed, I'm putting that little devil through some tests.

The colors that came out of the camera when it was fired in fully AUTO MODE were kind of disappointing, to me.  But, they look fine here.  Maybe, the genius operating the camera did something like bump a white balance setting by mistake.  Who knows ?

This is another shot made with the Pentax at f/11  1/500  ISO 200.

Before getting safely off the highway I snapped one more quick shot with the G12.

Not exactly laboratory conditions, the wind was blowing but, that's what happens, sometimes in real life.  Camera specs:  f/3.5  1/640  ISO 100.

So far, I'm impressed with the results the little Canon G12 is giving me but, it'll take a few months to give it one of my Mad Mike's Reviews.

Now, back to those flower thingies.

If some of the flower lovers out there can help me, we can help the WIKIPEDIA FOLKS, TOO.

They seem to have some material missing from their references on Coleus Plants.

Is anybody a flower or Coleus expert ?

All I want to know about the plants I shot today is:

ARE THESE HUMONGOUS COLEUS PLANTS OR WHAT ?