would have been much nice shot vertically.. you cut off his legs and butt... and there was not really any reason not to flip the camera over to vertical, was there? Now you have a lot of dead space on the right. Eye looks oversaturated too....
Sounds like fun! That is when you don't zoom in tight.. leave yourself some room to play with... and then crop to please! I have a D800, and I know what it will do... you can crop heavily if needed and still get good shots.