diff --git a/src/_h5ai/server/php/inc/class-app.php b/src/_h5ai/server/php/inc/class-app.php
index 43345c81..949a7417 100644
--- a/src/_h5ai/server/php/inc/class-app.php
+++ b/src/_h5ai/server/php/inc/class-app.php
@@ -386,15 +386,8 @@ class App {
         $hrefs = [];
 
         foreach ($requests as $req) {
-            $type = $req["type"];
-            $src_href = $req["href"];
-            $width = $req["width"];
-            $height = $req["height"];
-
             $thumb = new Thumb($this);
-            $thumb_href = $thumb->thumb($type, $src_href, $width, $height);
-
-            $hrefs[] = $thumb_href;
+            $hrefs[] = $thumb->thumb($req["type"], $req["href"], $req["width"], $req["height"]);
         }
 
         return $hrefs;
diff --git a/src/_h5ai/server/php/inc/class-bootstrap.php b/src/_h5ai/server/php/inc/class-bootstrap.php
index 71a7050e..9a85c037 100644
--- a/src/_h5ai/server/php/inc/class-bootstrap.php
+++ b/src/_h5ai/server/php/inc/class-bootstrap.php
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ class Bootstrap {
 
         putenv("LANG=en_US.UTF-8");
         setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "en_US.UTF-8");
-        date_default_timezone_set("UTC");
+        date_default_timezone_set(@date_default_timezone_get());
 
         define("MIN_PHP_VERSION", "5.4.0");
         define("HAS_MIN_PHP_VERSION", version_compare(PHP_VERSION, MIN_PHP_VERSION) >= 0);