Santa at the Circle

A Historic Day for Borrego Springs Athletics

Neighbors helping keep Borrego beautiful, one cleanup at a time.

More than two decades of storytelling from Borrego Springs For more than two decades, Dennis Noyes and his wife, Heidi, have called Borrego Springs home. Noyes continues a life shaped by words, racing, travel, and storytelling. Known especially in Spain for his decades covering the MotoGP World Championship, Noyes built an international reputation as a motorcycling journalist, former racer, road tester, and television commentator. But alongside that fast-paced career, he continued pursuing another lifelong passion: fiction writing. Words and storytelling have always been central to his life. His father wrote for Stars and Stripes, while his mother was a linguistics professor at Purdue University. Even as a teenager growing up in central Illinois, Noyes found himself torn between two passions: racing and writing. That passion for writing earned him the Atlantic Monthly Annual Writing Contest for Students in 1966 and a scholarship to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. His early career included reporting for a daily newspaper in Caracas, Venezuela, teaching English in Guatemala, and eventually building a life and career in Spain. In Spain, Noyes became both a national championship-winning motorcycle racer and a respected motorcycle road tester for Solo Moto and Motociclismo magazines. Over the years, he traveled internationally covering the biggest names in Grand Prix motorcycle racing while becoming one of the most recognizable voices in motorcycle racing commentary. The Noyes family story also includes his son, Kenny Noyes, who followed in his father’s tracks. Kenny made his world championship debut in 2010 and won the Spanish national title in 2014. After a serious racing accident, Kenny turned to writing as part of his recovery, later publishing From Racer to Survivor: A Memoir. In the book, he shares his journey from competing on the racetrack to facing the challenges of recovery from a traumatic brain injury. Dennis and Kenny also co-wrote a book together, drawing from their shared years as journalists and racers.

By: Brice Weaver When photography emerged, painting did not disappear, but it undeniably changed. Portrait painters and masters of realism were no longer needed in the same way because photography could document reality faster and more accurately. Art evolved, but the expectations changed. A painter like Rembrandt or Monet spent years mastering light, form, and observation because there was no alternative. Photography changed the role of painting, and with it, what culture rewarded. Looking at photography today, I wonder if we are watching a similar shift happen again. This is not a film versus digital argument. I shoot both. Nor is it an argument against technology. Better cameras and editing tools have expanded what photographers can do. But we should also ask what those tools may be changing. Photography once demanded intentionality. You had to recognize light, anticipate moments, understand timing, and know when to press the shutter. As technology advanced, many photographers shifted from intentional decisions in the moment to fixing and shaping images later. Exposure could be recovered. Composition refined. Light reshaped. Moods built in post. Photographers like Ansel Adams heavily interpreted images in the darkroom, but the essence of the scene remained intact. The mountain was still there. The light existed. Dodging and burning shaped feeling, but the photograph remained tied to a real encounter with the world. Today, much of what is rewarded by social platforms and even professional organizations is no longer simply photography. Through editing, compositing, and AI-assisted tools, photographers are increasingly building scenes instead of witnessing them. At what point does a photograph stop being a photograph? And maybe the harder question: at what point does a photographer stop being a photographer and become something closer to a digital artist or graphic designer? If most of the light is created after the fact, skies replaced, atmosphere added, and moods manufactured, are we still talking about photography in the traditional sense? My bigger concern is that photographers may be slowly editing themselves out of relevance. If the profession increasingly rewards manufactured outcomes and visual perfection over patience, then AI becomes the logical next step. Why hire a photographer if the goal is simply a compelling visual result? AI will generate it faster, cheaper, and without travel, waiting, weather, or years spent learning how to see. Maybe the future value of photography will not come from those who can create the most visually perfect image, but from those who still choose to witness the world rather than manufacture it. Because eventually we may discover that what gave photographs meaning was never perfection, but presence and evidence that a particular moment, place, or truth once existed, and that someone cared enough to see it. briceweaverphotography.com

Charles Robert Starrett was an American actor and singer, best known for his role as “The Durango Kid” in over 100 Western films. Born on March 28th, 1903 in Athol, Massachusetts, Starrett began his acting career in the silent era before transitioning to sound films. He passed away on March 22nd, 1986, in Borrego Springs, California.