diff --git a/examples/llava/llava.cpp b/examples/llava/llava.cpp
index cf19a2f78..ffdad9c99 100644
--- a/examples/llava/llava.cpp
+++ b/examples/llava/llava.cpp
@@ -128,7 +128,33 @@ void llava_free(struct llava_context * ctx_llava) {
     llama_backend_free();
 }
 
-static void llava_process_prompt(struct llava_context * ctx_llava, float * image_embd, int n_img_pos, gpt_params * params, const char * prompt) {
+
+
+static bool load_image(llava_context * ctx_llava, gpt_params * params, float **image_embd, int * n_image_pos) {
+    // load and preprocess the image
+    clip_image_u8 img;
+    auto prompt = params->prompt;
+    if (prompt_contains_image(prompt)) {
+        if (!params->image.empty()) {
+            printf("using base64 encoded image instead of command line image path\n");
+        }
+        if (!get_image_from_prompt(prompt, &img)) {
+            fprintf(stderr, "%s: can't load image from prompt\n", __func__);
+            return false;
+        }
+        prompt = remove_image_from_prompt(prompt);
+    } else {
+        if (!clip_image_load_from_file(params->image.c_str(), &img)) {
+            fprintf(stderr, "%s: is %s really an image file?\n", __func__, params->image.c_str());
+            return false;
+        }
+    }
+    llava_build_img_embed(ctx_llava, params->n_threads, &img, image_embd, n_image_pos);
+
+    return true;
+}
+
+static void process_prompt(struct llava_context * ctx_llava, float * image_embd, int n_img_pos, gpt_params * params, const char * prompt) {
     int n_past = 0;
 
     const int max_tgt_len = params->n_predict < 0 ? 256 : params->n_predict;
@@ -156,7 +182,6 @@ static void llava_process_prompt(struct llava_context * ctx_llava, float * image
 
 }
 
-
 int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
     ggml_time_init();
 
@@ -178,32 +203,12 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
         return 1;
     }
 
-    // load and preprocess the image
-    clip_image_u8 img;
-    auto prompt = params.prompt;
-    if (prompt_contains_image(prompt)) {
-        if (!params.image.empty()) {
-            printf("using base64 encoded image instead of command line image path\n");
-        }
-        if (!get_image_from_prompt(prompt, &img)) {
-            fprintf(stderr, "%s: can't load image from prompt\n", __func__);
-            llava_free(ctx_llava);
-            return 1;
-        }
-        prompt = remove_image_from_prompt(prompt);
-    } else {
-        if (!clip_image_load_from_file(params.image.c_str(), &img)) {
-            fprintf(stderr, "%s: is %s really an image file?\n", __func__, params.image.c_str());
-            llava_free(ctx_llava);
-            return 1;
-        }
-    }
     float * image_embd;
     int n_image_pos;
-    llava_build_img_embed(ctx_llava, params.n_threads, &img, &image_embd, &n_image_pos);
+    load_image(ctx_llava, &params, &image_embd, &n_image_pos);
 
     // process the prompt
-    llava_process_prompt(ctx_llava, image_embd, n_image_pos, &params, params.prompt.c_str());
+    process_prompt(ctx_llava, image_embd, n_image_pos, &params, params.prompt.c_str());
 
     llama_print_timings(ctx_llava->ctx_llama);