5 minutes with — Linda Pauline Arousell

Linda-Pauline Arousell is a wedding photographer from the northern town of Ljusdal, Sweden. We had her attention for a few minutes to share a bit more about herself and how she approaches work.

WUN: So, for those who don’t know you, who is Linda-Pauline Arousell?

Linda-Pauline: My name is Linda Pauline. I live in the north of Sweden and work mostly with shooting weddings. Besides that I also shoot a lot of baby and pregnancy photography, mostly in the winter.

WUN: So you live in Ljusdal, right?

Linda-Pauline: Yes.

WUN: Yeah. So that’s a pretty small town, right?

Linda-Pauline: Yeah, it’s a really small town and I live in a smaller town just outside of Ljusdal called Ygsbo, it is located about three and a half hours north of Stockholm.

WUN: All right. So what is it like to be a wedding photographer in a really small town in North of Sweden?

Linda-Pauline: I thought it would be tough in the beginning. But I had my first wedding in Stockholm early on and I got a lot of weddings in Stockholm after that. So I realized that I had to travel a lot to do this every year, because I shoot very few weddings in my local area.

WUN: So how do you find people wanting to book you?

Linda-Pauline: I thought it would be hard to get work, but I’m good at promoting myself when I’m visiting other places where I want to work. I do Facebook advertising in Stockholm or Gothenburg. But the best thing is to have a good reputation to get a lot of friends. It’s the best thing I know about weddings, to get new friends.

WUN: You mean other photographers or…?

Linda-Pauline: No, I mean like guests, wedding couples, and so forth. I’m not just their photographer, I become their friend too. When I make friends, then I get more shoots. I want to have friends all over the world that I can visit, that recommend me when I’m there and things like that.

WUN: So I’ve seen that you’re quite active on social media too.

Linda-Pauline: Yes. Instagram is my favourite thing.

WUN: You spend a lot of time on Instagram stories?

Linda-Pauline: Yes. I didn’t like it at first because I was used to do a lot of snapchat. But now Insta stories is better than snapchat. Snapchat is for my friends and Insta Stories is for my clients and the world.

WUN: So do you feel that it helps you a lot in marketing yourself?

Linda-Pauline: Yeah. I show a lot of pretty pictures on my Instagram feed but I’m also going to show my life and I think Insta stories is good for that, the behind-the-scenes, my family and friends.

WUN: So you can connect both with your images and your personality in the same place?

Linda-Pauline: Yes, exactly. And, also, on Instagram, I work with a lot of hashtagging and searching for hashtags and stuff like that.

WUN: So do you get a lot of weddings that way?

Linda-Pauline: Yeah, I do. I tag places that I visit like hotels and restaurants.

WUN: So do you have a strategy for that or it’s just a natural way for you to do it?

Linda-Pauline: I don’t think I have a strategy. But I think about it all the time. If I’m visiting a place I like and I really want to shoot there, I try to get a couple there or just take photos of the place, just to get people to see I’ve been there.

WUN: So you’re in Greece right now, right?

Linda-Pauline: Yes, I am. So before I was going here, I was searching for a couple. I didn’t find any greek couples on social media, but I found a photographer from here. And I hope we are going to meet up. So she’s going to photograph us and we’re going to photograph her. I also have friends visiting in the same place. So they are going to be my models for a sunset session here in Platanias.

WUN: Then you blog that and put it on Instagram?

Linda-Pauline: Yes, exactly.

WUN: So that is really working out for you?

Linda-Pauline: Yeah, I don’t advertise any other way. Not in newspapers or anything like that, only Instagram and Facebook. Like with Facebook advertising, you can choose your location for your ads. It has helped me a lot because I searched for some couples in South Africa late in the summer and I got a lot of response to that when I used Facebook ads.

WUN: So it works with a destination wedding situation too?

Linda-Pauline: Yes.

WUN: That’s interesting. So would they be willing to pay for you to fly down and shoot their wedding or is it more like “we’re getting married around the time you are here” – or how does that work?

Linda-Pauline: When it comes to South Africa, I’m going to work with a wedding planner. So we are going to visit and get more people to find out about me and book me. So that’s why I’m looking for couples. We are there for five days to see the country. We will be visiting wedding venues with a newspaper and travel companies that are tagging along. But I get inquiries for other countries too. Like Norway, and I have one in Italy as well.

WUN: They also found you mainly through Instagram and Facebook and social media in general?

Linda-Pauline: Yeah. I usually ask them, where they find me, and most of them say Google and Facebook. I don’t know how they Google me but I’ve been to Italy like three times. So maybe that’s why. I have always dreamed to shoot a wedding in Norway. So I hash-tag Norwegian wedding locations a lot. So I think they found me that way.

WUN: That’s fantastic. It’s a brilliant way to do it when you’re living in a small town quite far from the major cities.

Linda-Pauline: Yeah, because where I live is so quiet and calm and almost no people. So I love the crowded, but I love the calm.

WUN: It’s a good mix to go out, work, and then come home.

Linda-Pauline: I lived in Stockholm for one year. But I couldn’t manage the stress. Not every day.

WUN: I moved out myself from Stockholm too, although not so far away as you. But I live in the middle of nowhere basically, but with only an hour drive to Stockholm. It’s fairly manageable.

Linda-Pauline: Yeah, but Ljusdal is a good town for small companies because everybody helps a lot. I have a lot of friends who have small companies and we get a lot of help and support each other. Everybody knows who I am, where I live. So I think that’s a good thing.

Check out Linda-Pauline Arousell online here: Website | Instagram