Wizard Tag
We are so busy every day working on all of the tasks to complete each phase of wand development. During our weekly planning meeting, we decided that we have to plan on fun events in addition to the work, because that is what the wand is for!
We decided to take a couple of the prototypes that have some of the basic spells programmed and go for a night hike. This might be a simple thing in most places and in other seasons, but this is winter in the Upper Midwest! Read on to learn about those challenges and look for some cool pictures documenting the walk.
Taking a Walk at Night with Wizard Tag Wands and Starlight Mode
Who would go on a hike at night in North Dakota during winter?
When we decided to head out to the park after 10 pm on a winter night in North Dakota, we dressed as we normally would. In the last couple of days, however, a blast of cold Arctic air penetrated deep into the Midwest and lowered temperatures about 30 degrees! So we were “ready” for winter, but -7 degrees Fahrenheit (-22 C) is bone chilling cold.
Thankfully there was no wind, which is strange in North Dakota! However the humidity was high, so it felt even colder than it was. Since we were planning on doing some photography, we had to take our hands out of gloves or mittens for at least a few seconds at a time. At -7 F it doesn’t take long to get frostbite though, so we had to be careful!
How bright is Starlight mode?
When we got away from the street lamps and into the park, darkness descended upon us. That didn’t last for long, since we had our wands with us and quickly cast Starlight!
On one of the wands, we didn’t even go into Starlight Mode, but changed the lights to max brightness in the settings (that took three spells, aka gesture commands). Then we cast a few more spells and changed the large crystal colors to a cool light blue, which blazed like an elven star on max brightness!
Starlight mode alone was good enough to read by and to make our way through some trees off the path.
What light there was reflected nicely off of the white snow cover and really helped with night photography!
What did we see and what did we do?
We decided to head towards an old stand of pine trees off the path where deer are known to take refuge. Either we were too loud (quite possible) or the deer found a more secure thicket. In fact they might have been out foraging at that hour. We continued to scout for some great spots to take some night photos and highlight the brightness of the wand.
The lack of wind was a blessing, since it would have dropped the windchill to about -30. As it was, we just crunched our way off the paths in our winter boots until we found some huge pines that allowed us to walk under their boughs. It was like we were inside of a dark pine tent surrounded by a sea of white sand.
And it was sooo quiet!
After we got the settings right for some night pics, we decided to do some time-lapse shots to highlight some of our favorite spells. We got Starlight of course, but also UV-light, Shield, and Fireball as well.
Comments on Night Photography
Fortunately the technology on smartphones makes night photography easy. There is probably a night mode on your phone. We were using a Samsung Note20 Ultra, and the Samsung S23 Ultra. We tried Night Mode and Pro with manual settings.
In preparation for the cold, I changed one of the settings for audio activation. That makes it take a picture when you say, “Cheese” or some other word. This prevents you from having to have your fingers out in the cold, and also obviates the need to push the button on a long shutter stop, which would cause a blur in the picture with even the slightest camera movement.
We also brought a small tripod with fully bendable legs and a remote control button. This was super handy, since we could wrap the legs of the tripod around tree branches. Also, sometimes “Cheese” didn’t activate, so the button was a great backup. I had it on a rubber band around my wrist for easy access!
If you are using night mode on a smartphone, it is probably going to analyze the light and decide how long to keep the shutter open on its own. In our case that varied from 2 to 30 seconds, depending on how much ambient light there was, and how much the wands provided. In pro mode, you can change the ISO and shutter speed to get the timing you want and adjust for the darkness. Both worked well.
Another advantage of doing night photography is that you can take time-lapse pictures to show motion with lights. We were able to write our names, show off the shapes of our gesture-command spells, and have a lot of fun.
Of course the arm with the wand moving around could be invisible in the final picture, but some of the effects you can generate are really cool!
Share your thoughts in the comments below!
- Have you ever gone on a night hike?
- What are you looking forward to most with your Wizard Tag Wand?
- Have you done any night photography?
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Wow! This product looks amazing, how incredible …..I would love to purchase or review this. With the world we live in nowadays internet, special effects, all the AI generated images, movies, everything is lit up, LED lights are so popular!! Let’s not forget how popular Harry Potter is and how everyone would love a wand like in the movie.
I love this product without ever using it, from its ooks, games options, interactive game options and flashlight capabilities. Please keep me updated on the review and release of this please and thank you.
Hello Malorie! Thank you so much for your comment on our blog. We are continuing to develop our prototypes with new software! If you sign up for updates on the red button, we will be sending out regular information about the wand, progress, and our upcoming Kickstarter campaign.
We are glad you like the look of the wands and the options. We think they will be great for HP fans, and fantasy fans in general, who just want a magic wand that does something when you cast a spell. They will also be great for laser tag fans, and we hope that many non-laser taggers will become fans after they realize they can do combat with no buttons or triggers or screens to watch!
You can also follow our progress on the Development Progress page where you can see how far we’ve come in each of the phases. The bars will be moving regularly now!
Since we only have limited numbers of prototypes for development, it will be hard to get them out for reviews, but we will be attending conventions and trade shows, and will post that information, so people can find us there to check out the devices in person.
I hope that helps and that you continue to enjoy the blogs, both the Wizard Tag product oriented ones, and the fun ones about games and books, etc.!