Your apps can be redownloaded. However, if you have any games that do not sync to the app provider's server your progress will be lost.
For photos, it's more complicated. Assuming you did not back up to iTunes and did not enable automatic daily backup to iCloud:
- If you had enabled iCloud Photos they can be re-synced to your phone
- If you had synced your photos to any of the many cloud storage apps (upthere.com, google photos, dropbox, box.com, shutterfly, etc) your photos will still be wherever you synced to
- If you had enabled Apple Photo Stream the past 30 days of photos will still be in photo stream
If you did none of the above they are gone for good. Along with contacts, calendars, notes, reminders, bookmarks and anything else you did not sync to iCloud.