Universal CityWalk, One of my primary clients, are putting the finishing touches on their new stage, the 5 Towers. As with any new cool toy, they needed to test it out and hired me to shoot around the atmosphere and the feel of their new venue. Within 3 hrs of powering it up, they had hundreds flock to the totally redone plaza and start dancing, singing, and taking hundreds of pictures of the spectacle.

I had heard how elaborate the new stage and concert area was, but I think everyone was blown away at how quickly it changed the atmosphere into an outdoor night club.

Now onto my fresh purchase. I am expecting to be shooting this new venue for months to come and consequently, I don’t have the ideal range of lenses to capture it in the way I see it being best showcased. So I went online to order a new lens.

I ordered the Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 and it should be arriving tomorrow. This longer focal length will let me shoot the performers with better separation from the stage, allowing the stage to glow in a beautiful bokeh.

I think depending on how well this works, it might talk me into renting a Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS at some future gigs to give even more range of shooting, it’s been a lens I have always wanted but needed on only rare occasions, not enough to justify the price tag. This purchase also means I get to see the build quality of the Rokinon lenses in-depth, before I buy this lens shorter counterpart, the 35mm F/1.4, another lens on my buying-soon list.

UPDATE POST: After a month of shooting the venue (3 weekends of shooting), the Rokinon has paid for itself (example footage in post here) and I tried out some other lenses last weekend when I had some spare time after I borrowed them for another gig (post coming soon).