iphone iOS6 problems

[wardie100]

I got a message on my iphone this morning saying I could upgrade to iOS 6. I accepted and started to d/l it via wifi. Everything seemed to go ok but when it was done I had an icon appear on my screen saying attach to itunes. However when I plug in to itunes it just says its detected a phone in recovery mode and I need to restore it.
reading the apple forums this seems like its happened to a few people. I would just restore my phone, however I have not backed my phone up in over a year (rubbish i know). Is there anyway at all to back myphone up before i restore it or is it worth waiting phoneless until I can get to the iphone store or am I just going to have to bite the bullet and restore and just lose a load of photos etc?