iPhone 5s update from iOS 7 to iOS 8 failed and now iPhone is in recovery mode. I want to save pictures, but how?

iPhone 5s (32GB) update via WiFi from iOS 7 to iOS 8 failed and now iPhone is in recovery mode. I want to save pictures, but how...

I do not have recent backups via iTunes software and iCloud has not backed up any of the data due to 5GB storage limit, so neither of these options are viable (for me).

Are there any utilities that allow iPhone data to be viewed and copied? Apple chat support indicated that because my WiFi connection faltered during the update process that this is likely was resulted in the iPhone being thrown into recovery mode. (Sure is hard to believe Apple engineers would not protect against such a scenario...)

What I tried: Connecting iPhone to Windows 7 & 8 since one post on apple discussion boards indicated windows would mount as a usb drive, but this did not work for me. Other attempts included loading and using a couple of tools I found on the cnet downloads site, but these did not work either.