It’s hard not to envy renowned Australian photographer, Patrick Stevenson. He has just finished an epic road trip across the United States that took him from the sunny streets of LA to the epicenter of arts and music at Coachella, and then eastward to the big lights of New York City. He took along his DSLR camera for work, but when it was time to embrace the fun of American road tripping, Stevenson got rid of the bulk and took every photo with the HTC One M9.
He farewelled his familiar surroundings in Australia, hopped on a plane, and 14 hours later arrived in Los Angeles to ‘dodgy cab drivers and scamming limo dudes’. From there, the adventure began – which included crashing in the Hollywood apartment of Peking Duk’s frontman Adam Hyde, a road trip to Indio, California, for the annual Coachella Festival, a free game of baseball at Dodger’s Stadium, and urban exploring all over New York City.
Stevenson answered a few questions from us about his fascinating road trip.
You mention you had some ‘pretty views to look at’ while venturing out of LA. Can you describe the most memorable sights while road tripping through the desert?
‘The most memorable sights I experienced upon leaving Coachella and Palm Springs were the huge amount of wind farms that line the horizon and fill the valleys. Apparently some people say they’re an eye-sore but I think they’re absolutely captivating, especially their perpetual motion and the way they line up. It’s a maze of clean energy! There’s also some epic mountains that we went past unlike anything we’ve got in Australia’.
There were some great Aussie bands playing at Coachella that you were already familiar with, but what great artists did you discover for the first time there?
‘A group which I have never seen play from beginning to end were Odesza. They are amazing and have such a great appeal as a live show. Another act who I was blown away with was AC/DC. I grew up on their music but this was the first time I had ever seen them play live. One of the guys in the band had bleeding knees from rocking out so hard!’
You shot all your US road trip pics with the HTC One M9. How did it change your artistic approach using a phone as your primary camera?
‘Using a phone as a primary camera was very different to using my professional DSLR camera. For starters, instead of looking through my viewfinder, I was seeing my image on a digital display which actually made framing things very easy and I was able to shoot on some angles that were previously unable to be done with my DSLR. A lot of images which I didn’t think turned out that well actually looked great once I brought them up on my laptop after editing them on in-camera apps I got through the Google Play store’.
As a photographer, what is the best feature of the HTC One M9 camera?
‘Selfie Mode! Also, there’s a slider which makes your skin look more youthful and soft, and after a week in the desert, that is something I definitely needed to use’.
[nb … The HTC One M9 features dynamic auto exposure and UltraPixels that capture 300% more light than standard cameras. This results in a better quality selfie due to the picture being more sharper and natural-looking in any lighting conditions you come across!]
What is your favourite photograph from your trip and what led up to it being taken?
‘My favourite photo is a photo of my good friend Justin walking down an empty road just across from the Coachella festival site (featured above). We went in early to check out some bands play but then decided to walk back to our house, which was literally across the road within a gated community. The road was blocked off by police and I caught the moment my mate was trying to cool down by flapping his arms in the air.
‘After this photo was taken, it took us 45 minutes to get into the gated community – we jumped two fences and almost had the police called on us, then trekked through a golf course and got completely lost. But we finally found our home with cold beers waiting for us!’
After travelling from California to New York, how would you compare the West Coast of America to the East Coast?
‘They’re completely different. Los Angeles is all about the glitz and the glamour and the sunshine, whereas New York is dark, cold, full of steel and concrete, and a lot more harsh of an environment. But strangely, I felt myself way more attracted to New York than Los Angeles. I guess I’m a big city kind of guy’.
If Patrick Stevenson – one of Australia’s best photographers – enjoyed taking all his road trip photos on the HTC One M9, then I’m lining up to get one. This phone, apart from looking so swish with its all-metal body, is the perfect pocket companion for road trips and everyday adventures.
The front camera provides photo and imaging control you can’t get on other devices, as well as selfie features that are controlled with your voice. But one of the most unique features of this phone’s camera function is the 2-Sided Camera Creation which creates split capture images from both the main camera and the selfie camera.
That’s innovation any selfie fan will be happy to hear!
And for those wanting to get a little more creative with their photography, the HTC One M9 also features a double exposure editing tool which allows users to blend two photos to create a surreal work of art. The best thing about this feature is that it takes just seconds to use and requires no previous knowledge of photo editing to get the job done.
You can also remove unwanted objects from photos with a tap of your finger, create gifs out of your photo gallery, use Face Fusion to combine two people’s faces together for a laugh, and even draw on photos to remember special occasions or moments.
The HTC One M9 is packed with features any budding photographer will love. I say ditch the bulky DSLR and grab this sleek, streamlined phone for all your vacation pics.
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