Changes to the time_offset have no effect, regardless of syntax.
How should this be entered? And should it also change (e.g. from Eastern to Pacific?)
Thank you.

Still haven't resolved this.
Any thoughts?

The time offset is entered in hours as written in the accompanying description.

In admin-options, it states "If you're in a different time zone from your server, set the offset in hours," which I fully understand, however, changing the offset has no effect on the time displayed not the time zone. Am I missing something?

The time offest should be the difference between the server timezone and your local timezone. So, if you are on the East coast using a server on the west coast you would enter (-5) - (-8) = 3

The time_offset appears to impact only the date/time of comments. This actually makes sense since comment posting times are the only ones dependent on the server. The time of the comments will reflect your local time rather than the time at the server.

Of course, all this could be moot in this day and age. Who knows what the time was at the poster's locale.

What behavior were you expecting?

Now it is beginning to make sense... I have been expecting the offset to effect the time
and date shown when a new album is created. Album time is shown in ET and does not appear to be influenced by a change to the time offset. However, I do see that the time offset does effect the time shown when a comment is posted. Is there a way to change the time to Pacific (west coast) for albums creation time shown?

The short answer is no. It might be possible to show those dates in local time given two conditions:

1. We add a local timezone option so we know what "local" is.
2. The camera data properly identifies the timezone of the image. This is more of a problem. I know that my SLR camera records the time in UTC but my pocket point and shoot just puts down the time the camera has been set to.

So, what adjustment do we make to the time? If all your pictures were shot on the Pacific Coast and recorded "local" then the time will be "correct" (At least for viewers who are also on the Pacific Coast.) If not, and the timezone of the shot is not indicated, then one can only assume some offset.

Anyway, since the time of the picture is relative anyway, The only reasonable thing to do would be somehow to tack on the timezone indication of where the picture was taken. Don't know if there is an EXIF field for that, though.

I think the easiest solution for me, would be to remove: from my custom index.php file - since displaying the exact time the album was created is not critical in my case. Thank you all for the great support!