A Helensburgh motorsports fanatic has taken his passion and transformed it into a career.
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Jack Martin, 23, admits his room is still filled with racing posters and memorabilia but now his daily job requires him to chase after these cars in the Australia Rally Championship, to capture epic moments in time.
"When I got my first camera, at the age of 16, it was something I really enjoyed doing but never really thought it was going to turn into a career," he told the Mercury.
His love for motorsports saw him take his hobby to events, including the first year a young-gun named Harry began racing for his dad's outfit the Neil Bates Motorsport Team in 2015.
Martin offered a few free photos to the emerging rally star and struck up a friendship, and was picked up by Toyota in 2017 when Harry Bates signed on to drive full time.
"He wanted his own photographer and saw a budding young photographer in myself," Martin said.
Now it's his life, and he was recently given the opportunity to photograph the new Toyota GR Yaris AP4.
"My earliest memory [of racing] would be when I was aged five and my dad took me to Bathurst 1000, and I've gone every year since," Martin said. "I would always watch my dad and my uncle with their cameras and I always wanted to go with a camera ... I was hooked on the idea of being able to capture the action."
The ARC competition is a little different to Bathurst's Supercars though, as all cars are off-road - making the perfect shot even harder to get.
"It's not like racing where you can stand on a corner and have cars coming at you constantly, you have one car that goes past you on one corner ... so you have to plan it pretty well and be smart," Martin said. "There's so many things that run through your head - it's nerves, it's excitement, because ... anything can happen."
Martin's advice for anyone wanting to get in to the industry would be to keep perservering and be unique.
"I see heaps of photographers stand on the same point shoulder to shoulder but they're going to get the same shot as the guy on their right," he said.
"Being creative and being unique in your shots is also something that's very vital to make you stand out from the crowd."
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