Capturing an incredible McLaren supercar with the Galaxy S9 Plus

The McLaren 570GT supercar. The Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus. Two products at the absolute peak of technological performance. I combined the two to see how well I can shoot a road trip across Europe using just the phone. 

Over 1,500 km (about 930 miles) I traversed mountain passes, hunted down elusive waterfalls and had a terrifying train journey through the heart of the mountain. I came away with a set of images that are extremely impressive for a phone. 

What follows is a gallery of shots I took on my journey, all of which were taken on the Galaxy S9 Plus and edited on the phone using Snapseed and Adobe Lightroom.

It was amazing cruising around the Swiss Alps on these winding roads. This shot was taken from a video clip I shot by putting the phone on a Manfrotto tripod, giving a view out of the front windscreen.

I pulled over in a quiet lay-by to get this shot. I took it from a low angle to emphasise the aggressive stance of the car.

Shooting from behind this time, I applied a slight vignette around the car in Snapseed to draw more attention to it.

As I climbed higher on the mountain roads, the snow piled up.

An adorably German town sign.

The weather wasn't always blue skies, but I like the drama of the dark clouds here.

I wandered down to this frozen lake to see if there was an opportunity to photograph the car here. Sadly, there were no roads I could use to get the car down, so I took this landscape shot using the panorama mode, using the rocks as foreground interest.

I loved finding this logging spot. Here, I've used the logs as leading lines, drawing the eye toward the car.

The 570GT with its wings up. Beautiful.

Despite the low light, the S9 Plus's wide aperture has still been able to capture a sharp, bright image. I shot in raw and edited the image in Snapseed, boosting contrast to emphasise the curves of the carbon fibre and changing the white balance.

Shooting low again to give a sporty feel to the car.

Shooting from behind.

I like the juxtaposition of the supercar, designed for roads, being seen in this decidedly off-road scenario.

My view from the road.

After much searching, I found this spot near the town of Meiringen where I could photograph the car with the mountains in the background.

And just behind me, this view of the surrounding countryside.

I wanted to capture my hotel room, too. Here, I used the panorama mode to get a much wider angle than the phone could normally achieve. I had the phone on my tripod in portrait orientation, letting me simply push the phone in an arc to capture an even shot.

I found another lay-by just off a forest road. I crossed the road and got down low to take this shot -- once the traffic had gone past, of course.

From the other side of the road, I wandered into the trees to find a way to frame the car with the foliage.

A nice view down the forest track.

As some of the mountain passes were closed due to heavy snow, I had to drive the McLaren onto this train, which would take me through the mountain. It was terrifying -- the carriage was barely wider than the car, and the tunnel was pitch black and loud. 

Not a fun rail journey.

I found this small waterfall and put the phone into manual shooting mode. I chose a long exposure in order to slightly blur the water spilling down, which gives a real sense of motion.

A selfie, of course. I like the depth of field effect the phone achieved around me.

A covered bridge, with some big boulders in the foreground.

Hi friend!

I drove back through the Champagne region of France, hoping for some shots of the car in front of beautiful mansions or stunning landscapes full of vines. Instead, the nearest I could get was this Moet & Chandon outbuilding. Oh well.

A view down a row of grape vines.

Grapes property of Moet.

The 570GT, with some delightful alpine context.

Blue skies and mountains -- a beautiful combination for a supercar road trip.

Driving through the Black Forest in Germany, there weren't many opportunities to stop and take photos of the car, but I did like this stark tree stump in the snow.