I needed to do this to preload a bunch of images. This is how I got around just using the img tag:
imaage = new Image();
<v:collection path="/work[image != '']">
imaage.src = $('<v:img path="image" width="210" height="210" image_size="thumbnail" />')[0].src;
imaage.src = $('<v:img path="image" width="210" height="210" image_size="thumbnail" filter="grey" />')[0].src;
</v:collection>
This translates into nice jQuery:imaage = new Image();
imaage.src = $('<img width="210" height="210" alt="Image" src="http://selectny.vaesite.net/__data/700018a4f79c1611dda45e2811df5b90.jpg" />')[0].src;
imaage.src = $('<img alt="Image" src="http://selectny.vaesite.net/__data/ced0b59f7c8dbcd7111bf8a037ce4bdd.jpg" />')[0].src;
imaage.src = $('<img width="210" height="210" alt="Image" src="http://selectny.vaesite.net/__data/f7cb0e4862fabf9db0c4471024de00a9.jpg" />')[0].src;
imaage.src = $('<img alt="Image" src="http://selectny.vaesite.net/__data/2d75dc58199ef2c41ffef89e2b7a4f99.jpg" />')[0].src;
imaage.src = $('<img width="210" height="210" alt="Image" src="http://selectny.vaesite.net/__data/3554ee37a298327c61999f483585b6d7.jpg" />')[0].src;
imaage.src = $('<img alt="Image" src="http://selectny.vaesite.net/__data/33a0afdc82dc1956df3c16122ac9d9f2.jpg" />')[0].src;
imaage.src = $('<img width="210" height="210" alt="Image" src="http://selectny.vaesite.net/__data/883cfe10a395707ce4e8730f4fb92fa4.jpg" />')[0].src;
imaage.src = $('<img alt="Image" src="http://selectny.vaesite.net/__data/3b494926ccd82a3b7fcc3ed7cd412127.jpg" />')[0].src;
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