How do you get power nowhere near an outlet?

[AJ_Sartor]

Hey everyone. This is my first post and I'm pretty new to photography so all help will be greatly appreciated. I was wondering how you plug things in on location to get power? I wanted to do some shots in the middle of the woods with some lights and a small fog machine, but have no idea how I would go about doing that. My first guess was a generator, but those are pretty expensive from what I've seen and I don't really have a large budget. All advice would be helpful. Thanks.

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You can probably get battery packs for the lights, but you might need a generator for the fog machine...

[WhiskeyTango]

There's probably no really cheap way, sadly... Your choices are a) generator b) inverter & batteries c) battery powered versions of the equipment you want to take.

For reasonably low current draw, and inverter might be the way to go, but the more power you need, the less practical it gets. It also depends on how sensitive the items are you're plugging in. For lights and a smoke machine, a low-end inverter or generator is probably fine. For more sensitive electronics that don't use an AC to DC adapter, you'd want a sine wave inverter, which start getting expensive fast...

I camp a lot in remote places, so I already have an inverter setup. It works really well for what I use it for. It consists of a 1500W inverter and (2) high capacity deep cycle sealed lead acid batteries. That combo, though, will run you about as much as a cheap generator...

Maybe see if there's a local rental center that you can get a generator from... preferably a Honda. They start easy and are quiet... at least compared to most.

[tirediron]

If you're going to use either an inverter or generator, make sure it is a pure sine-wave output type and NOT a modified/square sine-wave type.

[Big Mike]

If you're going to use either an inverter or generator, make sure it is a pure sine-wave output type and NOT a modified/square sine-wave type.

That is certainly the recommended type of inverter if you are going to be powering strobes. But if they are just using regular 'constant' type lights and a fog machine, then a regular inverter would be fine (and a lot cheaper).

You could get something like THIS, and hook it up to a 12v car battery.

[480sparky]

Keep in mind there are two flavors of inverters. Modified Sine Wave, which some electronics don't like (best case, they just don't work... worst case, you smoke it), and Pure Sine Wave, which obviously costs more.

[Sagitta]

Why not just buy some blocks of dry ice for the 'fog'? Then you can focus solely on the lights, which if they're just needed for 'ambience' can be as simple as battery operated / solar lamps.