Iphone 4GS died during iOS update, photos not backed up, how do I recover them?

I have 1, 500 photos on my phone, and a sad few are backed up. The phone hasn't been synced to a computer, and the iCloud storage I have isn't big enough for all of the photos.

Here is how it's acting. I started the upgrade when I went to bed. About halfway through the night I checked it, and the download appeared to be half done (I saw an apple logo with a half full loading bar below it). The next morning the loading bar hadn't changed. I tried turning it off, and nothing happened. I tried to reboot the battery by pushing the hold button (power) and the home button simultaneously. The screen went black and the apple logo reappeared. After that, the logo flashed a few times over the next few days. I let the battery die completely, and then plugged it in again. It displayed the empty battery sign, and after a while it went back to the apple logo. Four days after the initial crash, for no apparent reason, the screen turned blue for about a minute, and then returned to the apple logo. It usually seems to be overheating, too.

The most important thing is that the photos be saved, seconded by saving my notes. I called Apple and they made it sound unlikely that anything would be saved. However, every other tech-minded person I've spoken to believes that the phone should just be plugged into a computer that doesn't have iTunes.

What do I do? I have an appointment at an Apple store today, but I'm very concerned that they won't care about the photos, and will just wipe my phone because that's the easiest way.

The photos can't be recovered.

As a matter of fact, every time you sync data between iPhone and iTunes, all previous data will be automatically backed up by iTunes and stored as a.sqlitedb file, which will be updated along with the later sync continuously. But those backup files can't be viewed or taken out unless you use some software using special algorithms to extract. A third party specific iPhone data recovery software called Tenorshare iTunes Data Recovery can help. I used it to recover lost photos from iPhone 4s and it worked.