Pythonic way to achieve it

        filename = os.path.join(src, imagefile)

        try:

            img = Image.open(filename)

            # make sure to rotate the image according to EXIF data of the original image

            # ImageOps.exif_transpose(img) # doesn't work for some reason

            EXIF = img._getexif()

            # rotate the image according to the EXIF data

            try:

                if EXIF[274] == 3:

                    # print("Rotating image by 180 degrees")

                    img = img.rotate(180, expand=True)

                elif EXIF[274] == 6:

                    # print("Rotating image by 270 degrees")

                    img = img.rotate(270, expand=True)

                elif EXIF[274] == 8:

                    # print("Rotating image by 90 degrees")

                    img = img.rotate(90, expand=True)

            except:

                pass

                # print("No EXIF data found for image: " + filename)

            img = ImageOps.exif_transpose(img)

            img = img.convert("RGB")

        except Exception:

            continue