The flash makes for a rather horror-movie-like blue value, but the orange and yellow of this fungus - I think it's a Laetiporus sulphureus caught my eye. The blue haze caused by the flash plays up the bright color of the fungus, but it's also not unlike the dusky hue the woods took on that afternoon of one of my happiest days ever. We had been walking and talking and taking pictures all along the way and I knew that we would make it. I could wax poetic about brightness in the dark, but then I'd be likening our burgeoning happiness to a chunk of fungusgrowing on a dead tree. It doesn't seem quite fitting.
The Laetiporus sulphureus is also called the "chicken of the woods," as it is apparently edible and very common. It grows on dead and decaying wood, in the summer and fall, usually. It also apparently has a strong, fungusy smell and a pleasant sourish taste. It doesn't quite work as an analogy, you see.
Also, for the record, this site is very useful for identifying fungi. This one, too.
