By MEGAN MANAGAN

mmanagan@soundpublishing.com

Any girl who has been in high school in the last 10 years – or her parents – can attest to the closet of formal dresses they leave behind. Prom, homecoming, winter formal – the dresses stack up since most will be worn once or twice.

Now, a local photographer has come up with a way to use those dresses one last time – and benefit a local charity, too.

Danielle Ness, who owns Criativo Photography, has created Rock the Dress, and will give girls a photo shoot in their dresses at Luther Burbank Park on Aug. 15. Ness will then take the dresses to The Ruby Room, an organization in Seattle that collects dresses to give to girls who couldn’t otherwise afford them.

“Knowing that these girls spent hundreds on their dresses and they are never going to wear them again got Ness thinking.

“What could we do to get awesome pictures of these girls in these amazing dresses and how could we use these expensive dresses again to benefit other people.”

Ness sees it as a win, win, win situation. It helps Ruby Room, the girls who are going to be getting the dresses and it’s fun for the girls who are donating.

“They get to feel good about themselves and they get an awesome picture,” Ness said.

Each girl who donates a dress will get a 20- to 30-minute photo session with Ness.

“I love Luther Burbank Park for pictures because there is so much variety for pictures. I don’t want the pictures to all look the same.”

Girls should come ready to go, with their hair and makeup the way they’d like it in the pictures. They also should bring other clothes since they will be giving the gowns to Ness.

Each girl will receive a free 5×7 print and a photo for Facebook.

Ness is taking reservations at danielle@criativophoto.com, through Facebook at www.facebook.com/criativophoto or by calling 425-890-7801.