Either removing the "Data" format argument or using "JPEG" instead should do it.
Here is a short example based on the original code.
imgdir = FileNameJoin[{NotebookDirectory[], "Flow pic"}]; (*Export three images for testing purpose*) SeedRandom[42]; images = ExampleData /@ RandomChoice[ExampleData["TestImage"], 3] Export[FileNameJoin[{imgdir, "le-" <> ToString[#] <> ".jpg"}], images[[#]], "JPEG"] & /@ Range[3]; FileSystemMap[FileSize, imgdir] (*Output*)

(*Using Import function with "JPEG" fmt argument*) imagesA = Import[FileNameJoin[{imgdir, "le-" <> ToString[#] <> ".jpg"}], "JPEG"] & /@ {3, 2, 1}; Map[ImageTake[#, {50, 630}, {499, 600}] &, Map[ImageResize[#, {900, 650}] &, imagesA]] (*Using Import function w/o fmt argument*) imagesB = Import[FileNameJoin[{imgdir, "le-" <> ToString[#] <> ".jpg"}]] & /@ {3, 2, 1}; Map[ImageTake[#, {50, 630}, {499, 600}] &, Map[ImageResize[#, {900, 650}] &, imagesB]] (*Output*)
