Everyone loosens up eventually. We just know how to get you there faster.
That's the only thing we've ever done... help you feel like YOU on one of the biggest days of your life!
Built on legacy. Shaped by everything I've lived since.
This WORK chose me, as much as I chose it.
Through all of it, I've learned that people are most themselves when they feel safe and the pressure lifts. That's when the moments that matter happen, as long as someone in the room knows how to hold space without filling it.
I’ve spent two decades inside the most human, intimate moments of people’s lives, and still feel everyone one of them fully.
I've photographed weddings on mountaintops and in ballrooms. I've documented the faces of people living in poverty in India and spent days inside the lives of CEOs, athletes, and celebrities. I've shot in every kind of light, and every kind of room.
Photography has shaped every corner of my life. It is how I understand people, and it is how I will understand you.
The Banga Story
2000
The first photographer to go digital
My father became the first South Asian photographer to shoot an entire wedding on a digital camera. The Fujifilm FinePix S1 Pro. Each card held 200–250 images, about what we shoot in fifteen minutes now. He still tells me I take too many pictures. The same year, he was awarded the Kodak Gallery Award for “Pakistani Bride,” which was displayed in Orlando, Florida. Prior to this, he won multiple awards and artistic competitions, but this was one that represented his signature style.
1995
The shift to wedding photography
The long drive was taking him away from home more than he’d like, so he made big shifts. He bought a studio seven minutes from home, and shifted his focus to wedding photography. He built this business around family, and I’ve always tried to do the same.
2002
Award-winning photographer
His work continued to be recognized, and he was awarded the title of Craftsman of Photographic Arts.
2005 -2007
He slowly stepped away
A shift occurred, and Satpal decided it was time to move away from the creative arts and go back to his roots as a tool and die maker. Banga Portrait Studio went on a multi-year hiatus as his focus changed.
1994
My siblings and I were involved
Satpal continued to deepen his knowledge, shifting from printing photographs to portraits and commercial projects. He’d bring my siblings and me with him to his studio 40 minutes away, and we’d be his test models to help him further develop his craft.
1989
My father bet on himself
My father, Satpal Banga, was creative at heart. In India, he worked daily with his hands, crafting different metals as a tool & die worker. When he left his motherland in 1984, he joined his career but felt his passion for photography was calling him. With no formal training and no guarantee it would work, he opened Banga Photo Finishing Lab. A one-hour photo lab, rooted in a community, built on nothing but belief.
1990
The $6500 Leap
He purchased a Toshiba laptop for $6,500 without any knowledge of computers. My mother thought he had lost his mind. I remember sitting in front of that black MS-DOS screen for hours as a child, not knowing what I was doing either.
2008
The hand off
This is where I unintentionally stepped in. I was pursuing my business degree and needed a quiet place to study. My dad gave me the keys to the studio and asked that I take care of any walk-in clients. I used this opportunity to apply the theory I was learning at school directly to the business. We never had a formal transition, but the studio was passed over to me.
2009
Making Banga my own
I started making Banga Studios my own with a new visual identity and a deeper understanding of what our couples wanted, how to bring the best out of our team, how to speed up delivery, build a studio culture, and be a leader in the photography industry.
2010
Quitting corporate to go full-time
I worked in corporate while simultaneously meeting clients, shooting, and editing events every waking hour I had. I knew I wasn’t meant to work in corporate, and six months in, I quit and never went back.
2011
The night I met my future wife
We were photographing a wedding in Miami, and I ran into a past client’s sister. She invited us out that night, and we went. That’s the night I met Misha, my wife-to-be.
2016
The beginning of BangaBooth
I had been shooting personal projects and sharing them with friends in the industry. Someone connected me to a leader at The Knot, and the next week I got a call asking if I could shoot portraits at their Gala at the New York Public Library. That night, I felt energized in a new way. In those brief interactions, I felt like I was meeting who people were at their core.
2017
The team grew
This year, the vision of building a studio with multiple photographers aligned under one shared vision became a reality. We grew to a team of 12, capturing over 70 incredible couples annually.
2020
My slow down and backyard wedding
We were coming home from Dubai after shooting a BangaBooth at the Burj Khalifa, and the whole world shut down. Misha and I had been planning our wedding. We let go of the big version and gathered twenty people in her parents' backyard instead. We moved in together, and with nowhere to be, I finally began to focus inward on my morning routine: movement, meditation, and journaling.
2021
Our second wedding
We got married again, with 140 of our closest people in Toronto. For our honeymoon, we went to Morocco, Turkey, and Tanzania. We both summited Mt. Kilimanjaro on the first leg of the trip and spent the second half on safaris and the beaches of Zanzibar.
2024
I became an author
It took me fifteen years to break bad habits, but I decided to teach people how to build better habits in one book. It was my goal to become an author, and I finally wrote a book filled with real-life accounts and actionable steps that blend emotional intelligence with practical strategies to increase positivity, productivity, prosperity, and daily peace.
2023
Shifting my focus
I did a 10-day silent meditation retreat, and sitting in the silence made me realize my joy has always come from being truly connected with others and their stories. Somewhere along the way, my work wasn’t feeling as fulfilling and felt more like a to-do list. I knew then and there I wanted a change. I wanted to be more intentional about the people I worked with to better curate my client experience. That meant making a decision that scared me and stepping back from volume to become intentional about who I said yes to. We went from 70+ events a year to under 20. I wanted to show up fully for the people I captured, and that meant creating space to actually choose each other.
2025
We welcomed our daughter
My whole life is now designed around being present for her. The best parts of my day are watching her explore, witnessing her curiosity, holding her in my arms, and watching Misha be her mom. I captured a day in the life with them and it feels like it contains all the joy in my heart.
2025
Completed a Half Ironman
Every year, I create one big goal for myself, and in 2025, it was to complete a half Ironman. A half Ironman is a total of 70.3 miles of swimming, biking, and running. When I signed up, I didn’t know how to swim! It was a very humbling experience going to swim lessons with retired folks who were doing laps around me. I eventually flew to BC to learn how to swim as an adult. Thankfully, I did, because those 4 immersive days helped me cross the finish line.
2026
Here and now
This year we see ourselves travelling the world as a family. I’m grateful to be able to do so much of that through photography. We see ourselves buying a new home with an acreage lot, having large windows to watch the sunrise and taking walks outdoors to be inspired by nature daily. Life for me right now is reminding myself to be in the here and now.
Meet Simrin Dhillon
Simrin knew photography was meant for her when she realized how powerful it is to preserve a feeling, not just a moment.
It became less about taking pretty photos and more about creating something people could return to and feel all over again. She always looks forward to the moment people let go a little and start being fully themselves because that’s when everything shifts, and the images start to feel real.
Simrin is deeply drawn to emotion, energy, and human connection. She pays close attention to people's feelings, how they move through a space, and the little things that define them. This helps shape the way she moves through life just as much as it shapes the way she photographs.
“Everyone at our wedding was *raving* about our photos as well.”
“My mother-in-law is already convinced she needs to book Banga Studios again for my sister-in-law's wedding one day in the future!! I can't say enough about how beautiful, poignant, and magical Banga Studios' work came out to be.”
BRIE | BRIDE
