photo question

whille trying to take my mind off the weather and not jinx it any further, I was going through some photos from around Paradise last weekend. I've been meaning to ask someone. What causes these dots in the following photos:

It's dust on your sensor. It's an easy fix with a small blower bulb. There are a few threads on this topic.

Nice powder shots of Brenda!

My screen has so much crap on it I could not even see the dots.

It's dust on your sensor.  It's an easy fix with a small blower bulb.  There are a few threads on this topic. 

if this were a DSLR with a removable lens it would be an easy fix. This being a compact, I think I might be screwed.

If you use iphoto, the "retouch" tool can take care of those dots in about 5 sec. If it's a compact camera, you will have to send it back to the manufacturer for cleaning. I retouched this one and the spots are still barely visible, probably due to the less that optimal lighting of the original.

I've seen spots like that too. My current compact camera sometimes displays a sickle shaped blotch. The good news is that these spots seem to be visible only in parts of a scene where there is no detail. So it's easy to remove them using photo editing tools.