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I was taking pictures of SEOW and was shooting against the Sun. The sun was close to the horizon and was partially covered with clouds. The Owl was only two feet from the ground in the evergreen mostly protected against the direct sunlight. Still the camera stopped working and came up with a message to turn it off and turn it back on. It did not help. I took the battery out and replaced it with a freshly charged battery. It did not help either. Then I turned around and took pictures of anything with the sun behind me. It finally worked. Any similar experience? Any explanation?
Thanks.

Never had that happen in 8 years of shooting Sony mirrorless including many shots directly into the sun.  My guess is that the light hit the sensor in such a way that it quickly overheated the sensor due to the magnifying glass effect but that's just conjecture on my part.  Take some mid tone pictures of a solid surface to make sure that the sensor didn't get burned. One thing you can do to reduce the risk of this, assuming it is temperature related, is to to reduce the camera overheat shut-off sensitivity in the menu:
Toolbox Icon > Setup Page 2 > Auto Power Off Temp > High

Thanks, E.J. I checked it, it was already set to high.
I'll be out tomorrow and do some shooting sunny condition, light coming from the side.
I hope everything will be fine.
I would hate to deal with the Canadian Sony service as it is very expensive and very slow.