Don't use this script for a module!

field_fetch_value.module

<?php

/**
* Returns field values as actual entities where possible,
* also allows selection of individual items to be returned.
* Code from http://drupal7ish.blogspot.com/2011/03/getting-field-data-out-of-entities.html
* Modified to handle field collections, but the case where a field collection has multiple fields is not yet handled.
*/
function field_fetch_value_fetch($entity_type, $entity, $field_name, $get_delta = NULL, $get_key = NULL) {
  $values = array();
  if (isset($entity->$field_name) && !empty($entity->$field_name)) { 
    if ($entity_type == 'field_collection') {
      if (!is_a($entity, 'FieldCollectionItemEntity')) {
        $entity = field_collection_item_load($entity);
      }
      $items = $entity->{$field_name}['und'];
    } else {
      $items = field_get_items($entity_type, $entity, $field_name);
    }
    if (!is_array($items)) {
      watchdog('Field Fetch Value', '$items is not an array: @items', array('@items' => print_r($items)), 'WATCHDOG_NOTICE');
      return NULL;
    }
    foreach ($items as $delta => $item) {
      $value = $item;
      $keys = array_keys($item);
      if (count($keys)==1) {
        $key = $keys[0];
        switch ($key) {
          case 'nid':
          $value = array_shift(entity_load('node', array($item[$key])));
          break;
          case 'uid':
          $value = array_shift(entity_load('user', array($item[$key])));
          break;
          case 'tid':
          $value = array_shift(entity_load('taxonomy_term', array($item[$key])));
          break;
          case 'vid':
          $value = array_shift(entity_load('taxonomy_vocabulary', array($item[$key])));
          break;
          case 'value':
          $value = $item['value'];
          break;
        }
      }
      else { 
        if ($get_key && isset($item[$get_key])) {
          $value = $item[$get_key];
        }
        elseif (array_key_exists('value', $item)) {
          $value = isset($item['safe_value']) ? $item['safe_value'] : $item['value'];
        }
      }
      $values[$delta] = $value;
    }
  }
  if (is_numeric($get_delta)) {
    return isset($values[$get_delta]) ? $values[$get_delta] : NULL;
  }
  return $values;
}

used in places like this

function _get_image_with_style($vars, $field_name, $style_name, $entity){
  // Use the existing image values for uri and alt, but set image style as directed
  $uri   = field_fetch_value_fetch($entity, $vars['element']['#object'], $field_name, 0, 'uri');
  $alt   = field_fetch_value_fetch($entity, $vars['element']['#object'], $field_name, 0, 'alt');
  $title = field_fetch_value_fetch($entity, $vars['element']['#object'], $field_name, 0, 'title');
  $options = array(
    'style_name' => $style_name,
    'path'       => $uri,
    'alt'        => $alt,
    'title'      => $title,
  );
  // Return the HTML for the properly styled image
  return theme_image_style($options);
}