Sun glare through telephoto risks

I shoot newly with dslr and 300 f2.8. I know the manual instructions regarding pointing at the sun and light source. I assume accidentally tilting the camera towards the sun (while not looking through the viewfinder) and immediately correcting it doesn't pose a risk.
However what about this...
1) I often get tempted to shoot against the light eg. subject in the sun glare in the water. This can be intense sight even to a naked eye leaving residues. With different cameras I wouldn't give this much thought but with dslr, supertele and the OVF, is this a really bad practice?
2) If I am going track animals through the OVF a lot eventually I just might make a mistake and track them into the sun in the heat of the moment, is this going to instantly fry me like an ant or is there still some leeway if I stop?
Thanks for the replies!

No worries! Especially with the glare/reflections. Just don't stop and stare at it too long.

Also no worries with the sun directly, so long as you don't stop moving the camera and leave it aimed at the sun. That can end up damaging the camera (and your eye, if you were continuing to look through the viewfinder).

If wanted, you could use a circular polarizer to control the reflections a bit. With a 300mm f/2.8 it will be a special drop-in filter, that has a little dial on top to adjust the filter setting.

Using the C-Pol filter will reduce the glare a bit, but I still wouldn't recommend gazing at strong glare or directly at the sun for more than a moment!

I agree, reflections don't have the same strength heat as focusing on the sun directly unless it's from a large mirror or some other nearly perfect reflecting surface. Even pointing directly at the overhead sun will take several minutes to do damage. I've taken sunrise/sunset photos where I set everything up waiting for just the right time without issue as the sun right on the horizon just doesn't have the heat left to do damage.

What will damage the sensor is lasers. Many photographers shoot at rock concerts that have lasers swinging around - if that hits the sensor it will permanently damage it right away.

I've shot reflections like your sample may times though, no problems with that.

greyswan wrote in post #19525380
What will damage the sensor is lasers. Many photographers shoot at rock concerts that have lasers swinging around - if that hits the sensor it will permanently damage it right away.

I've shot reflections like your sample may times though, no problems with that.

So mirrorless, having no reflex mirror nor mechanical shutter (not true of all mirrorless) would be more readily damaged during lasers at concerts, than dSLRs whose sensors are uncovered only at time of exposure...an important thing to keep in mind when planning to shoot at such concerts.