Real, have you tried one of those Spyder calibration thingys for your monitor? I just got a new monitor...colors and contrast aren't so great compared to my old one, hoping that thing does the trick. Lightroom is really nice on a big screen though.
Heads up Canon guys (just Real? lol)....EF-S 10-22mm $649 NEW on amazon today.....usually it's $800+. 24-70 F2.8L and the 16-35 F2.8L are $1099 and $1299 respectively. They usually a couple hundred more than that. 75-300 F4-5.6 (non L) which is kinda junk compared to the more recent EF-S 55-250, but it's only $145.
Or just use some Photoshop magic eraser and get rid of them. If you have GIMP, it wouldn't be as simple (you'd have to remove them and then hastily try to cover up the area with copied waterfall stuff and blend it all right), but it could work.
Finished product. Cropped out the plants so @boneplaya you can see how that screws with the depth perception.
Also, may I recommend www.lik.com - he has some truly stunning shots. It's Peter Lik from the Weather Channel series "From the Edge", in case you were wondering.
I love these pictures. Especially the first one is fantastic. The picture is so clear and the red color is great. I generally love flowers and from time to time I also shoot pictures of flowers but I guess I am not as talented as you are because my pictures are always a bit blurry. I love to order flowers on line and the bouquets are always so beautiful that I have to take a picture of them. Maybe I will find a good one then I will share it here.