This is as close as I have ever come to making a photograph that reminds me of a Norman Rockwell painting. I made this image in Riverton Township, south of Ludington, during a snowstorm in the 1980s. A sizable Amish community had settled in the area and had opened a school at the corner of Hawley and Schwass roads. I photographed the scene from a distance with a telephoto lens. All of the snowflakes I was shooting through kept the faces of the children unidentifiable and the facial expressions invisible. But there was no mistaking the body language that revealed the personalities and various decisions of the students about engaging, not engaging, or retreating from the schoolyard snowball fight. This photograph speaks to me like a Rockwell painting. I still smile whenever I look at it.