It’s January 2022 and Alpine sports specialist Yhabril Moro is high in the Baqueira-Beret region of the Spanish Pyrenees, camera in hand.  This close to sunset, the snow is near deserted. And for Yhabril, that’s perfect.

“I’d gone to Baqueira to photograph the Freeride World Tour with the Sony Alpha 1,” he remembers, “and had already shot thousands of photos. After the competition, I bumped into a friend, Urko Yarza, and we improvised a sunset shoot. He gave me the best photo of the day, better than all the ones I took of the pros!” The image is emblematic of what Yhabril tries to capture in his freeriding work. As Urko leaps through the air, his path traces out a curve of snow in the air, backlit by the setting sun.

“Freeriding is the discipline I love the most and for me, it’s art in nature. The athlete is moving into the unknown with total freedom, creating a unique and unrepeatable line. To get that feeling, there must be no other tracks, no ski lifts, or any human trace, and we must capture the best technical gesture of the rider at the best moment of the action.”

With a lifelong love for snowboarding and the mountain environment, Yhabril’s journey into adventure sports photography was a natural progression. “I've been hooked on snowboarding for the last 25 years,” he explains, “also working as an instructor for the past 20 winters, and while photography was something that came into my life suddenly, I immediately gave it 100%.”

Having kicked up his fair share of powder, Yhabril uses his understanding of the sport to make better images. “A good photo can’t be taken if the athlete isn’t skilled in the sport,” he asserts, “and collaboration is really important. I ask a lot of them, just as they do themselves. I am particularly demanding when it comes to technical gestures, and I’ll ask for repetitions until we get the desired result. So really, it's a shared journey towards capturing the perfect moment.”

Alpine photography doesn’t come without challenges, physical, technical and photographic.

Navigating the rugged terrain and battling extreme cold is all in a regular day for Yhabril, but he’s always aware of the dangers of mountain life. “The weather conditions directly affect safety and success,” he says.

That doesn’t mean bad weather puts Yhabril off though. “In fact, days with bad weather or unfavourable forecasts can be the best,” he reveals. “If there’s recent snow and a break in the clouds, you may capture some special shots. In those conditions I often shoot at high speeds to freeze the action and underexposed to achieve contrast between light and shadow, adding drama to the image, while also using a powerful flash to highlight the rider.”

From a photographic point of view, “light in the mountains is constantly changing,” he continues, “and this forces the photographer to adapt. Snow on a bright day is a very powerful natural reflector of light, so it’s a must to expose manually, but mirrorless cameras like the Sony’s Alpha bodies make this easy, thanks to the electronic viewfinder that shows you how the image is going to look before taking it.”

His current Alpha camera is the Sony Alpha 7 IV, “a body that’s super compact, lightweight and weather sealed, which is very important in the mountains,” he says. “From the beginning I was very impressed with the Alpha 7 IV's high ISO performance. Settings like ISO 2500 and ISO 4000 let me keep the shutter speed fast, or work at higher f/stops in dim lighting, while retaining detail, textures and great dynamic range for editing.”

“The Alpha 7 IV's fully articulating display is also a game changer when looking for new angles for shooting action,” he continues. “That’s a key way to make photos more dramatic, with images taken from low angles usually having more visual impact. They make every jump look higher!”

“But for action subjects, the feature that’s most impressed me is the Alpha 7 IV’s autofocus,” he says. “It is not only very quick and accurate, even when shooting through falling snow or a trail kicked up by a ride, but it carries on working in low light and low contrast conditions that are so typical of the environments I work in.”

The ability to face down challenges on the mountainside is as important to Yhabril as it is to the athletes that are his subjects, and both have their chosen tools to do it. Most of all though, it’s passion and desire that spells success he says. “You never can tell when you’re going to get the best shot,” he finishes, “so the most important thing is to be out there, and be ready!”