Replying to myself: since this comment is so popular, here's a fully working version for node 8:

  const util = require('util'),
    fs = require('fs'),
    writeFile = util.promisify(fs.writeFile),
    request = require('superagent'),
    stat = util.promisify(fs.stat),
    sorts = require('sorts'),
    log = console.log;

  const getPhotosAndSaveThem = async function(){
    try {
      const response = await request.get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/photos');
      const photos = response.body.sort(sorts.byKey('title'))
      await writeFile('photos.json', JSON.stringify(photos, null, 2))
      const status = await stat('photos.json');
      log(`I got some data from an API and saved the responses at ${status.birthtime}`)
    } catch (e) {
      log(`Oh no, something went wrong!`, e)
    }
  }

  getPhotosAndSaveThem()