So I am seeing a blank page returned after the initial setup screen. I have checked the config file and it seems to port the correct DB information into the file but never populates the database.

I have some of the following logs from the apache error_log and the setup.log from ZenPhoto

error_log

[Thu Jul 23 15:12:50 2015] [warn] [client 173.245.50.85] mod_fcgid: stderr: PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '[' in /var/www/vhosts/domain.tld/httpdocs/test/zp-core/functions.php on line 291
[Thu Jul 23 15:12:52 2015] [warn] [client 173.245.50.85] mod_fcgid: stderr: PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '[' in /var/www/vhosts/domain.tld/httpdocs/test/zp-core/functions.php on line 291
[Thu Jul 23 15:13:22 2015] [warn] [client 173.245.50.85] mod_fcgid: stderr: PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '[' in /var/www/vhosts/domain.tld/httpdocs/test/zp-core/functions.php on line 291

server.log

[root@srv02 zp-data]# cat setup.log
Zenphoto Setup v1.4.9[36167d6556]: Thu, 23 Jul 2015 15:02:24 -0500
Query error: Access denied for user 'user'@'localhost' (using password: NO)
Warn: PHP version 5.3.3 PHP Version 5.2 or greater is required. Version 5.4 or greater is strongly recommended. Use earlier versions at your own risk.
Warn: PHP Sessions [problems with save_save_path]. The configured PHP session path could not be used. Zenphoto has set the path to the zp-data folder.

Could this be a PHP issue or something else?

Yes, a PHP issue. One 5.4+ only call sneaked in. Please install the support build for now.

thanks, i'll give it a whirl