diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 5bd3f38..07fdfc2 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 __pycache__
 .vscode
 venv
+.venv
 docs/build
 dist
 build
diff --git a/src/bfio/base_classes.py b/src/bfio/base_classes.py
index a3dc8c2..1ec836f 100644
--- a/src/bfio/base_classes.py
+++ b/src/bfio/base_classes.py
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ def __init__(
         # Internally, keep the file_path as a Path object
         if isinstance(file_path, str):
             file_path = Path(file_path)
-        self._file_path = file_path
+        self._file_path = file_path.expanduser().resolve()
 
         self._max_workers = (
             max_workers