Arctic terns

I'd welcome any technical advice on these tern shots, particularly camera settings. Do you think different settings could have produced a better image? I think they're generally OK, but I wonder if they could be enhanced a bit, too. Some were taken in sunlight, others (I think it's obvious which ones) when cloud cover had come over, making for a pretty boring white background. I've added a bit of vignetting to a couple to alleviate the whiteness. Thanks for ploughing through them if you do! If birds are not your thing and you can't be bothered, I don't blame you!
They're all taken with my K-5 and DA 18-135 lens
First group are all 1/1000 sec, f/6.3 and ISO 400

1.



2.



3.



4.



This group are all 1/2000 sec at f/7.1, ISO 400

5.



6.



7.



8.



And I've got one at 1/2000 sec, f6.3, ISO 800

9.



Finally, here's one that's massively cropped as the birds that caught my eye were having a mid-air scrap about a quarter of a mile away. I only had the 18-135mm lens with me and was amazed at the quality of the cropped picture. It's not meant to be a display image, just an example of what the lens can do (and the fantastic aerial ability of these birds!)
10.



Thanks,

Some nice shots there

Number 4

I like them. As Steve has said #4 is excellent, as is #9, which is probably my favourite.

As to improvements, seeing as you ask, only #7 and #8 have eyes. Just a touch of high speed fill in flash would sort that out. Having said that I didn't take a separate flash with me this year and the built in one did a crap job.

You've blown the highlights on a couple. And also I'd tidy up a couple of the backgrounds. Where there is an obvious out of focus bird in the background, that's fine. But when it just looks like a blob, then I'd consider removing it.

All told you've got a very nice set

Thanks for the comments! I realised most were "eyeless" but would not have thought of using flash on such a bright day, so that's a lesson to learn. Ditto the blown highlights - I'm not really confident about what's going to come out of the camera at any given setting, so good shots are as much a matter of luck as skill at the moment. Point taken too about the background blobs - I should have spent a bit longer on that to get rid of them, but was running out of patience a bit with so many images to wade through after a fantastic day on the islands.

Got some owls to post next which I hope you'll like!

Thanks again,

John

Hope you didn't think me too harsh

Not at all, Alan! No point sitting back full of self-satisfaction when there are obvious points for improvement. Comments from such as yourself, David Storm and a few others are what I look forward to when I post on here as I know there'll usually be something constructive to take on board.