If I do a Hard reset of the phone, will that also delete the pictures that are stored on the device? Is there a way to recover the pictures without a Hard Reset?
You might try Recovering files via adb (Post #22), but normally if you don't have something backed up it's something you don't need. If you needed it, you would have taken the time to back it up. (This holds true with any computer, and always has.) I'll bet that you back up all your important things from now on.