'Loads an image given a path. An absolute path is assumed.
If the path points to an image file, it loads and returns the Image object, None otherwise.'

@staticmethod
def load_image(img_path):

    try:
        img = Image.open(img_path)
    except IOError as ex:
        log.exception('Pdf    unable    to    open    the    image    file:    %s', str(ex))
        img = None
    return img
