A Lifetime of Mastery in Every Portrait

A Legacy of Care

Toni C. Saunders brings a wealth of experience to KGS Studios from her 45-year career as a registered nurse (BSN, RN). Her background in healthcare has given her a strong commitment to precision and empathy, which are key values at the studio.

A Partner in Precision

Toni’s experience in healthcare and management shapes her essential role working with her husband, Kevin G. Saunders. She pays close attention to every detail in each session, ensuring the studio’s high standards are consistently met.

A Seamless Collaboration

Toni and Kevin work together to create a space where skill and genuine care come together. Toni manages the studio to ensure every client has a smooth and professional experience. She also enhances our larger portraits with her painterly brushstrokes. At KGS Studios, she helps create portraits that honor each client’s story with grace and care.

The Saunders methodology began in the late 1960s in Amarillo, Texas. Under his father’s guidance, a talented amateur, a 10-year-old Kevin G. Saunders began a formal apprenticeship in the physics of light.

Using a Leica M2, he was trained to calculate shutter speeds and apertures by eye, developing a forensic attention to detail and a kinesthetic understanding of exposure that pre-dates the era of automated digital assistants.

In 1968, during a family trip to San Antonio for Hemisfair, Saunders, then 12 and sick with the flu, accidentally left the camera on the plane. When he went back for it, he found it had been stolen. This loss taught him early on to value and protect what matters, a lesson he now applies to preserving each client’s legacy.

Formal schooling held limited appeal for Saunders when he dropped out of high school in his late teens. He left high school in his late teens, opting to gain real-world experience as an 18-wheeler truck driver. He traveled through 48 states, meeting people from all walks of life: from farmers in Nebraska to dock workers in New Jersey and warehouse staff in Seattle and Florida. Saunders quickly learned how to read people and handle challenges, from managing expensive equipment to solving problems and reporting results. These lessons, more valuable than any classroom, built the resilience and adaptability that shape his work today.

Opting for real-world experience over formal schooling, Saunders left high school in his late teens to drive 18-wheeler trucks cross-country. He traveled through 48 states, managing expensive equipment and meeting people from all walks of life, from farmers in Nebraska to dock workers in New Jersey and warehouse staff in Seattle. These lessons in reading people and solving logistical problems provided a resilience that no classroom could offer.

Saunders graduated from Westminster College in Fulton, MO, with a degree in Biology and a focus on anatomy. He was talked out of attending medical school by his father and entered the family insurance agency business. Saunders’s father was a pioneer in the risk management field, who left the insurance agency founded by his grandfather to redefine the insurance industry with computerization in the 1960s.

After a two-year career in the family insurance agency’s Dallas office, Saunders departed to pursue bicycle racing. Residing in Dallas, he trained 700 miles per week and competed in regional races; Saunders earned a place at the 1985 National Track Championships in Indianapolis, where he performed admirably among seasoned cyclists.

This demanding pursuit taught him the qualities of champions: discipline, timing, and perseverance. He later used these lessons throughout his career, including in the careful artistry he brings to his clients.

After moving to Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1986, Saunders supported himself as a bike racer and waiter before finding competitive sailing. By 1989, he left a successful but unsatisfying job in bond sales, where he held Series 7 and Series 3 licenses, to focus on Finn Olympic Class sailboat racing. He raised $70,000 a year to fund his goal, competing across the U.S. and in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

By 1991, Saunders reached a national ranking of 11th. This pursuit of excellence set the stage for his later achievements in both innovation and art. This era of high-stakes competition is documented in the December 1990 issue of Amtrak Express, which profiled his drive to be the best in his field.

In 1991, Saunders’ plans for the Olympic Trials in Finn sailing were cut short when Bill Clinton’s Presidential campaign took over fundraising in Arkansas, making it hard for him to compete for resources as an out-of-state Texan. This challenge taught him the importance of adapting, so he shifted focus and started Aero Innovations, a company that designed and manufactured air ambulance conversions and, later, VIP aircraft components and accessories. His role as an industrial designer and CEO in the aerospace sector is detailed in LEADERS Magazine (1997), where he was recognized as the “Sky Doctor” for his leadership in life-saving medical systems.

Saunders developed and received FAA certification for a new manufacturing and quality control system, the first in the world to use outsourcing in this way. In 1999, he sold his shares to the manufacturing director, who then made Aero Innovations a woman-owned business. Saunders became the chief industrial designer in San Antonio until the company closed in 2001.

When Aero Innovations closed in 2001 due to unreliable partnerships, it was a significant setback for Saunders. Still, he stayed active in music in San Antonio, playing in municipal bands and leading the Brassavola trombone quartet, whose recordings are still available. This tough time showed his ability to adapt and persevere, qualities that continue to shape his work.

After Aero Innovations closed, Saunders started an industrial design consulting business. He became the first Certified SolidWorks 3D CAD professional in Texas outside of tech companies. His projects ranged from stylish stove hoods to advanced medical devices and even a redesigned orchestral trombone. These varied skills, shaped by past challenges, are now key to his unique approach to art.

In 2004, Saunders founded KGS Custom Bicycles, gaining international recognition for his “perfect” attention to detail. His design for a $22,000 bicycle was featured on the cover of USA Today in 2007. Reviewers in Bicycling Magazine (April 2007) noted that no other custom builder had translated a client’s desires with such technical exactness. It was during this time that he returned to photography to document his builds, capturing the energy of athletes and the form of his machines in tens of thousands of frames.