Expressions are not evaluated in $watch of custom directive of angularjs

I have a below custom directive in angularjs which uses model thats gets updated from server, I have added a watch listener to watch the changes of that model,

var linkFn;
linkFn = function(scope, element, attrs) {
        scope.$watch('$parent.photogallery', function(newValue, oldValue) {
            if(angular.isUndefined(newValue)) {
            return;
        }
        var $container = element;
        alert($container.element);
        $container.imagesLoaded(function() {
            $container.masonry({
            itemSelector : '.box'
                });
            });
        });
    };
    return {
        templateUrl:'templates/Photos_Masonry.htm',
        replace: false,
        transclude:true,
        scope: {
            photogallery: '=photoGallery',
        },
        restrict: 'A',
        link: linkFn

However, when i debug in my watch directive, i still see that expressions in templates are still unresolved.i.e. photo.label, ng-src all are still unresolved. AFIK, $digest would be called only after $eval. Is this intended behavior? My jQuery calls are not working due to this? Is there any other event where i get the result element with evaluated expressions?

Here is my template, which has ng-repeat in it,

<div id="container" class="clearfix">
    <div class="box  col2" ng-repeat="photo in photogallery">
        <a ng-href="#/viewphotos?id={{photo.uniqueid}}&&galleryid={{galleryid}}"
            title="{{photo.label}}"><img
            ng-src="{{photo.thumbnail_url}}"  alt="Stanley" class="fade_spot" /></a>
        <h3>
            <span style="border-bottom: 1px solid black;font-weight:normal;font-size:14px;">{{galleryname}}</span>
        </h3>
        <h3>
            <span style="color:#20ACB8;font-weight:normal;font-size:17px;">{{photo.seasonname}}</span>
        </h3>
    </div>
</div>

photogallery is initialized in parent controller,

function MyCtrlCampaign($scope, srvgallery, mygallery) {

    $scope.updatedata = function() {
        $scope.photogallery     = srvgallery.getphotos($routeParams);
    };

    $scope.getphotos = function() {
        srvgallery.photos().success(function(data) {
            $scope.updatedata();
        }).error(function(data) {

        });
    };

Directive is used in below way,

<div masonry photo-gallery="photogallery" >
            </div>

Kindly let me know your views on this.