Something like that
Function imgTo64(ByVal thePath As String) As String
Dim img As System.Drawing.Image = System.Drawing.Image.FromFile(thePath)
Dim m As IO.MemoryStream = New IO.MemoryStream()
img.Save(m, img.RawFormat)
Dim imageBytes As Byte() = m.ToArray
img.Dispose()
Dim str64 = Convert.ToBase64String(imageBytes)
Return str64
End Function