Jax Navarro

Owner and Founder of Plastic Action LLC

Photography and Dogs

In my younger days, creating art was definitely a passion of mine. Like most people, creativity and art took a back seat as I began my journey in becoming an adult and finding a “career”. It wasn’t until I hit my late 30’s where the passion to create came back through photography where my dog (named Fugee) was my number one subject. My wife Lora introduced me to Instagram in 2012 and that’s when I stumbled across some really beautiful photos of dogs. I was so inspired by the amazing work that was out there that Lora and I eventually purchased our first "semi-pro" camera and shared our photos across the Instagram community under @thefugee which she fully manages now. We were fortunate enough to travel and shoot some really cool events like the National Dog Show, Pro Plan Incredible Dog Challenge and the Beverly Hills Dog Show. We also did work for companies like Warby Parker, Columbia Pictures, Squarespace, Beggin, ProPlan and BarkBox. Our work has also been featured on Huffington Post, AdWeek, Instagram's Blog, Instagram’s own “Animals of Instagram Calendar” and published in several books (Barkbook and Dogs on Instagram) released in 2016.

Toy Photography

Where did toys come into play? In 2016, I started taking pictures of a mini, remote controlled, Star Wars droid (Sphero BB-8) that my wife Lora gave me for Christmas and for fun, I posted these photos on a new Instagram account that I created specifically for this BB-8. The whole thought behind this was to bring this little guy to life and expose BB-8 into real world environments. From this Instagram account I discovered a whole new world called “Toy Photography” that I never knew existed. My mind was blown. Artists were creating some of the most cinematic and realistic scenes using toys as the main subject. I knew I wanted in on this and the rest is history folks! The passion I had for drawing as a child has reshaped itself into storytelling with toys as an adult. It has been an extremely fun and amazing ride so far and I can’t wait to see where this journey leads me to next!

Stop Motion Animation

I created my first stop motion animation short in September of 2019. The honest truth is, I didn’t enjoy it in the beginning. In fact, after creating that first one, I was never inspired to create another one. Then, in 2020, Moose Toys wanted to hire me to create a couple of stop motion shorts for their Space Jam line launching in 2021. Of course I said yes but I knew I had to step up my game because my first and only stop motion was pretty rough. I studied the best animators in the business and practiced A LOT. The Space Jam campaign was extremely successful and went viral on multiple platforms. This led to more opportunities and the more experience I got, the more I enjoyed the process.

I can't thank my wife Lora enough for opening the doors to my photography world, inspiring my creativity, and supporting my passions. Love you!