ATLANTA — Known as a master of his craft, longtime Associated Press photographer Dave Martin collapsed on the field of the Georgia Dome after taking one of his signature photos: the coach getting doused by his players.

The 59-year-old Martin suffered an apparent heart attack and died early Wednesday morning after working the sidelines at Texas A&M’s 52-48 win over Duke in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. Friends and colleagues remembered Martin as a larger-than-life character who was always happy to share advice with fellow photographers who he often outshot.

Martin covered nearly every major news event in the South over the past 30 years – including Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf oil spill – and he traveled to sporting events around the world and to conflicts in Afghanistan, Haiti and Iraq. His award-winning visual storytelling was splashed across countless newspaper front pages and the covers of Sports Illustrated and other magazines.

At sporting events, he was well-known for always managing to get himself in the perfect position to take the shot of winning athletes dousing their coach with water or Gatorade. Done right, such images capture the flourish of airborne water caught in the stadium lights, but they require great timing and positioning.

Tuesday night’s game was no exception – Martin perfectly shows Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin’s startled but jubilant expression as he’s splashed.

“Every photojournalist in the country knows the trademark Dave Martin picture was the coach being dunked,” said AP South regional photo editor Mike Stewart, who first met Martin in 1989.

AP Vice President and Director of Photography Santiago Lyon said: “Dave Martin was an excellent photojournalist, a consummate and dedicated professional and a wonderful person. Wherever his work took him he made many friends and will be deeply missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing him.”

Some of Martin’s most memorable images helped people around the world understand the toll of disasters in the South, such as a man wading through chest-deep floodwaters after Katrina with a garbage bag of belongings. Or the striking colors of oil droplets suspended in a cresting wave after the 2010 Gulf oil spill.

He won national journalism awards for images including one of golfer Phil Mickelson celebrating his 2004 win at the Masters and another of people bracing themselves against 90 mph winds next to an upended house in Key West, Fla., during Hurricane Georges in 1998.

“Anyone can shoot game action at sporting events or general news. Dave found MOMENTS,” former Mobile Press-Register photographer John David Mercer wrote in an email.

Martin took many young photographers under his wing, and Mercer said he learned a lot from Martin as a mentor – and competitor. As a young newspaper photographer, Mercer quickly found out that if he didn’t shoot an event well enough his editors would use Martin’s photos instead.

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