Loading external images in WPF - wpf

Question

I am building an application using WPF for Windows 8 in VB.NET and I need to load several images from the disk.
I don't want to add the images as a reference to the project, I just want to load them as is.
I already studied the "Imaging Overview" at MSDN and several other articles over the internet but nothing solved my problem.
I used both XAML and code but nothing worked. I can't get the image presented.
Dim myimage As New Image
myimage.Width = 200
Dim bitmapimage As New BitmapImage()
bitmapimage.UriSource = New Uri("C:\Users\MyName\Documents\Database\image.jpg")
myimage.Source = bitmapimage
XAML code:
<Grid Background="{StaticResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}">
<Image HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="265" Margin="191,145,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="660">
<Image.Source>
<BitmapImage UriSource="C:\Users\MyName\Documents\Database\image.jpg"/>
</Image.Source>
</Image>
</Grid>
When I load a referenced image (ie. Assets/Logo.png) it loads it correctly.
I also added all the necessary capabilities and declerations in the application manifest.

Answer 1

Your XAML looks correct. Maybe the image path is invalid. However it could be written simpler like this:
<Image HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="265" Margin="191,145,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="660"
Source="C:\Users\MyName\Documents\Database\image.jpg" />
The path string is automatically converted to an ImageSource instance.
In code you should use the BitmapImage constructor with Uri parameter. Otherwise you would have to call BeginInit and EndInit.
Dim uri As New Uri("C:\Users\MyName\Documents\Database\image.jpg")
Dim bitmapimage As New BitmapImage(uri)
myimage.Source = bitmapimage