To begin with, find a waterfall. I like them when they have plenty of vertical space, long lines of water to photograph. It won't be easy to get a good shot of the water but with a good subject, taking pretty pictures is rather easy. So find one with a good amount of fall to it and get ready to stand still!
Set up your camera so that you can get a good, tight zoom on the waterfall, still showing all of the wonderful range that it has. I prefer to be able to see the top and bottom in the same photograph. It is easier to tell what the focus of your image is when you have the whole thing in the shot, versus someone being interested in a particular type of leaf which seems to take prominence and is breaking up the waterfall so you can't see it.
Grab a tripod and set yourself up a goodly distance away. Set your fstop to as narrow an opening as you like but keep in mind we are going to be messing with the shutter speed here in a minute. If you have your aperture too far open (too small an f-stop number) then you are going to flood the image sensor (film) with light and it will appear blown out. I like mine around 6-10 depending on available light but your results may vary. Finally, set your exposure/shutter speed to as low as you can manage without totally blurring everything in the image. 1/60 of a second is a pretty good rule of thumb, unless you are hand holding your camera, in which case I wouldn't drop below 1/100.
For those of you without an SLR don't fret! Those controls on the back of your point and click are actually pretty useful if you know anything about shutter speed and f-stop. There is often an option for nighttime shooting on your camera and that's what you're going to want to use here. Do not use the sports photography or automatic settings on your camera as that will speed up the shutter and make the water look terrible. No, for this soft look you want the shutter open a good while if you can manage it and night settings do that very well. Also, you might consider trying landscape as well.
This photograph was shot off the cuff as I was explaining this principle to someone. I think it turned out pretty good seeing as I wasn't planning on actually using this photo!
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