A fungus among us

Here's a fungus on a tree. I was amazed at its appearance--and slightly disgusted. Something about growing on dead things, I guess. The setting was really nice. As you can see above, the log the fungus is growing on has a nice settled appearance, filled with rich browns and greens. Very photogenic. And there's the greenery framing the shot--but look at that closeup below. That's just nasty! But it was just too interesting to ignore...