Waiting.

The 180mm Nikkor on the D700 excels at this sort of thing, picking out the lone figure in the urban landscape with ease.

One very handy tool is the Highlights slider in Lightroom 4 which is an easy way of taming bright highlights like those in the second snap. This is a significant upgrade over Lightroom 3 and worth the upgrade cost alone, given how digital sensors burn out highlights every chance they get.