//APIs we will need
import java.awt.*;

............

Image myImage; //the var to hold the image

//loads the image from the give fileName, u will need to put in fileName
Toolkit toolkit = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();
myImage = toolkit.getImage(fileName);

//media tracker to make shure nothing gose wrong with loading the image
//and to make the progame wait intill the image as been loaded.
MediaTracker mediaTracker = new MediaTracker(this);
mediaTracker.addImage(myImage);
try
{
         mediaTracker.waitForID(0);
}
catch(InterruptedException ee)
{
          System.out.println("Error loading pic");
          System.exit(1);
}