UIImagePickerController file size is 10mb after reducing resolution by a third and cropping

I'm not sure where the problem is happening, but when I'm getting 8-10mb files even after I reduce the image quality and size of UIImagePicker's original image. Uploading to Amazon AWS shows 9mb files. Previously, they were around 1.5mb, and I don't believe I made any code changes.

I'm passing my original image to my method below;

-(void)reduceImageSize:(UIImage*)image
{
  int ratio = 3;
  CGSize imageSize = image.size;
  CGSize newImageSize = CGSizeMake(imageSize.width / ratio, imageSize.height / ratio);
  UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(newImageSize);

  [image drawInRect:CGRectMake(0,0,newImageSize.width,newImageSize.height)];

  UIImage* croppedImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
  UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

  [NSThread detachNewThreadSelector:@selector(cropImage:) toTarget:self withObject: croppedImage];

}

-(void)cropImage:(UIImage *)oldImage {

  CGSize imageSize = oldImage.size;
  CGFloat width = imageSize.width;
  CGFloat height = imageSize.height;

  CGFloat newDimension = MIN(width, height);
  CGFloat widthOffset = (width - newDimension) / 2;
  CGFloat heightOffset = (height - newDimension) / 2;

  UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(CGSizeMake(newDimension, newDimension), NO, 0.);
  [oldImage drawAtPoint:CGPointMake(-widthOffset, -heightOffset)
            blendMode:kCGBlendModeCopy
                alpha:1.];
  UIImage * newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
  UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

  self.cameraImage = newImage;

   NSData *imgData = UIImagePNGRepresentation(self.photoData.image); 
NSLog(@"Size of Image(bytes):%d",[self.cameraImage length]);
}

Any ideas on what is going on here?