I thought I would give this "look down" approach a try. My test pictures look pretty good.

The camera is about nine feet above ground level. The box is treated plywood.The legs are ten-foot lengths of 1/2" conduit that slip into short sections of 3/4" conduit that are bolted to the box. There's a one-inch nylon spacer on the bottom bolt of the side legs to spread them (no spacer on the back leg).It's easy to lean the tripod over to put the camera in the box.