Answering my own question here for those that run into this problem down the line. As far as disabling the AF in picture mode, you can't....but it's not a huge deal. Now, when it comes to the AF while recording (which has been an issue for me) one simply disables AF by touching the screen on the area you want the camera to focus on and it will stay there no matter what. You'll get an "AF" icon on the screen while the AF is disabled, touching said icon re-enables the AF feature while recording. Awesome.
