Google Galaxy Nexus — Nexus 4 Samsung i9250 stuck in endless reboot loop - can I recover pictures?

I have a stock (non-rooted) i9250 Nexus 4 that refuses to complete the boot process. The users said, that just prior to this kind-of "bricking" the system asked to start some sort of update, probably a firmware update.

When I try to go into recovery mode, the robot with the red triangle appears. I then press Power + Volume Up I get the "Android system rcovery < 3e>" menu. Have done a wipe cache partition, but that did not change anything.

Now, two questions:

1) Is there a way I can access the pictures on the device before proceeding any further? Like using a USB connection from my PC, that is otherwise used for remotely flashing the firmware? There are important pictures on the phone and I'd like to make sure that the last sync has copied them all... (and, of course, the phone does not simply show up as a drive when connected to the PC, as android hasn't booted yet.)

2) I assume that I'll need to reflash the phone and would hope that if I reflash it with the latest stock firmware I might be able to access the pictures. Where can I get stock android images for the i9250?

Thanks for your support,

Tom

— modified on Feb 24, 2015, 6:27:33 AM