[Theme: Twenty Eleven] Image caption woes / phantom characters

that is a design feature – add this to style.css of your child theme:

.wp-caption .wp-caption-text:before {
	content: ''; /*remove the symbol before caption text */
}

Thank you, I missed that.
Making the edit now.

Now I appear to be having issues with the spacing being uneven / out of whack after making that change. I’ll poke around in the CSS but if you have any advice there I’d appreciate it.

Edit: have it under control I think, thanks for the tip(s).