How to encode images for Google Cloud Vision

gistfile1.py

images_names = list()
for iterator, image_file in enumerate(images):
	image_path = os.path.join(folder_name, image_file)
	images_names.append(self.path_leaf(image_path))
	self.images_names.append(self.path_leaf(image_path))
	with open(image_path, 'rb') as image:
		image_content = base64.b64encode(image.read())
		image_payload = {}
		image_payload['image'] = {}
		image_payload['image']['content'] = image_content.decode('UTF-8')
		image_payload['features'] = [{
					'type': 'LABEL_DETECTION',
					'maxResults': self.MAX_LABELS

		}]
		payload['requests'].append(image_payload)

		# Need to check if we have reached 10 images, meaning we must send a request,
		# Google does not like more than 10 images (more or less) per request
		if (iterator + 1) % 10 == 0:
			try:
				response = requests.post(self.google_vision_url, json=payload)
				payload = {}
				payload['requests'] = []
				# response = service_request.execute()
				json_response = response.json()
				if 'responses' in json_response.keys():
					intermediate = json_response['responses']
					merged = zip(images_names, intermediate)
					response = dict()
					response['responses'] = []
					for element in merged:
						image_labeled = {}
						image_labeled[element[0]] = element[1]
						response['responses'].append(image_labeled)
					responses.append(response)
					images_names = list()
					# Add one second delay before making another request
					time.sleep(5)
			except requests.exceptions.RequestException as ex:
				print('The following error occurred trying to label images with Google {0}'.format(str(ex)))
				continue