diff --git a/h5pyd/_hl/__init__.py b/h5pyd/_hl/__init__.py
index af6ddb0..aa5f617 100644
--- a/h5pyd/_hl/__init__.py
+++ b/h5pyd/_hl/__init__.py
@@ -11,3 +11,5 @@
 ##############################################################################
 
 from __future__ import absolute_import
+import logging
+logging.getLogger("h5pyd").addHandler(logging.NullHandler())
diff --git a/h5pyd/_hl/base.py b/h5pyd/_hl/base.py
index 7c40be2..679c10e 100644
--- a/h5pyd/_hl/base.py
+++ b/h5pyd/_hl/base.py
@@ -1082,19 +1082,6 @@ def __init__(self, oid, file=None, track_order=None):
         self.log = self._id.http_conn.logging
         self.req_prefix = None  # derived class should set this to the URI of the object
         self._file = file
-        # self._name = None
-
-        if not self.log.handlers:
-            # setup logging
-            log_path = os.getcwd()
-            if not os.access(log_path, os.W_OK):
-                log_path = "/tmp"
-            log_file = os.path.join(log_path, "h5pyd.log")
-            self.log.setLevel(logging.INFO)
-            fh = logging.FileHandler(log_file)
-            self.log.addHandler(fh)
-        else:
-            pass
 
         if track_order is None:
             # set order based on group creation props
diff --git a/h5pyd/_hl/folders.py b/h5pyd/_hl/folders.py
index bfdfe67..1454dee 100644
--- a/h5pyd/_hl/folders.py
+++ b/h5pyd/_hl/folders.py
@@ -117,8 +117,6 @@ def __init__(
 
         """
 
-        self.log = logging.getLogger("h5pyd")
-
         if len(domain_name) == 0:
             raise ValueError("Invalid folder name")
 
diff --git a/h5pyd/_hl/httpconn.py b/h5pyd/_hl/httpconn.py
index 6745fb9..6a2b2c5 100644
--- a/h5pyd/_hl/httpconn.py
+++ b/h5pyd/_hl/httpconn.py
@@ -187,9 +187,10 @@ def __init__(
             self._objdb = None
         self._logger = logger
         if logger is None:
-            self.log = logging
+            self.log = logging.getLogger("h5pyd")
         else:
-            self.log = logging.getLogger(logger)
+            self.log = logger
+
         msg = f"HttpConn.init(domain: {domain_name} use_session: {use_session} "
         msg += f"use_cache: {use_cache} retries: {retries}"
         self.log.debug(msg)