diff --git a/osxphotos/_version.py b/osxphotos/_version.py
index be4c736c..eb41159a 100644
--- a/osxphotos/_version.py
+++ b/osxphotos/_version.py
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 """ version info """
 
-__version__ = "0.42.21"
\ No newline at end of file
+__version__ = "0.42.22"
diff --git a/osxphotos/exiftool.py b/osxphotos/exiftool.py
index 53b4f885..97e5d9ea 100644
--- a/osxphotos/exiftool.py
+++ b/osxphotos/exiftool.py
@@ -6,19 +6,28 @@
     If these aren't important to you, I highly recommend you use Sven Marnach's excellent 
     pyexiftool: https://github.com/smarnach/pyexiftool which provides more functionality """
 
+import atexit
 import json
 import logging
 import os
 import re
 import shutil
 import subprocess
-from functools import lru_cache  # pylint: disable=syntax-error
 from abc import ABC, abstractmethod
+from functools import lru_cache  # pylint: disable=syntax-error
 
 # exiftool -stay_open commands outputs this EOF marker after command is run
 EXIFTOOL_STAYOPEN_EOF = "{ready}"
 EXIFTOOL_STAYOPEN_EOF_LEN = len(EXIFTOOL_STAYOPEN_EOF)
 
+# list of exiftool processes to cleanup when exiting or when terminate is called
+EXIFTOOL_PROCESSES = []
+
+@atexit.register
+def terminate_exiftool():
+    """Terminate any running ExifTool subprocesses; call this to cleanup when done using ExifTool """
+    for proc in EXIFTOOL_PROCESSES:
+        proc._stop_proc()
 
 @lru_cache(maxsize=1)
 def get_exiftool_path():
@@ -61,6 +70,8 @@ class _ExifToolProc:
         self._exiftool = exiftool or get_exiftool_path()
         self._start_proc()
 
+        EXIFTOOL_PROCESSES.append(self)
+
     @property
     def process(self):
         """ return the exiftool subprocess """
@@ -117,9 +128,6 @@ class _ExifToolProc:
         try:
             self._process.communicate(timeout=5)
         except subprocess.TimeoutExpired:
-            logging.warning(
-                f"exiftool pid {self._process.pid} did not exit, killing it"
-            )
             self._process.kill()
             self._process.communicate()
 
diff --git a/tests/test_exiftool.py b/tests/test_exiftool.py
index f131544a..bef5dad2 100644
--- a/tests/test_exiftool.py
+++ b/tests/test_exiftool.py
@@ -417,3 +417,16 @@ def test_photoinfo_exiftool_none():
         photo = photosdb.photos(uuid=[uuid])[0]
         exiftool = photo.exiftool
         assert exiftool is None
+
+
+def test_exiftool_terminate():
+    """ Test that exiftool process is terminated when exiftool.terminate() is called """
+    import osxphotos.exiftool
+    import subprocess
+
+    exif1 = osxphotos.exiftool.ExifTool(TEST_FILE_ONE_KEYWORD)
+    osxphotos.exiftool.terminate_exiftool()
+
+    ps = subprocess.run(["ps"], capture_output=True)
+    stdout = ps.stdout.decode("utf-8")
+    assert "exiftool -stay_open" not in stdout