Huge Data Loss

I've been working on a project for years in which I made photos of thousands of pages from old magazines. All were/are on a storage drive. I was in the process of organizing these files into date order, all on the storage drive itself, as far as I know none were moving to/from the MacBook itself. I had been working on this organization portion of my larger project a few hours a day, copying/pasting from one file into the desired location. I'm not as familiar as I probably should be.....so rather than trying to drag/drop (because I didn't know how to do that from one folder to another when folders can't fit on the same screen.....if you follow me) I was copying a group of files, usually about 30, and then pasting into the folder I wanted. I realized I could save time by first selecting, hitting COPY and while the selected items were still highlighted I would then sent to Trash. It had been working fine for quite some time. But, somehow, one time the usual Moving 30 items to "Trash" notice opened but at the same instant another immediately below titled "Emptying the Trash" began running numbers at lightening speed. There was no way to stop it that I could find. I even had time to grab a quick video before it quit.....abotu 60,000 files later!!

Is there a way that I can recover those "trashed" files? Do you think one of the recommended "personal" recovery products would have a chance, or should I bit the bullet and go professional.

ANY and all help/suggestions appreciated. While this is just a hobby, the loss quite literally represents many years of work.

THANKS!