Techniques for capturing flowing water

I would love to be able to capture flowing water such as a waterfall or waves upon a beach, and make them look like candyfloss - Im sure you know what i mean. Ive had a couple of attempts this week, one at the beach and another on the edge of a lake, but every attemnpt has resulted in overexposed white results.
I have been using f22 - f36, ISO 100 and tried shutter speeds from 0.5 seconds to 8 seconds, but all end up too bright and I have no idea how to alleviate this problem. I even waited until sunset as light levels were lower but still experienced the same problem. Can anyone suggest what I am doing wrong?

Yea, the problem is you're trying to do this when there is too much ambient light. You need to shoot that nearer to dusk/dawn ... another option is a ND filter to block out enough light to allow for the timed exposure.

edit: and 1-2 seconds of open shutter is probably all you need ...

Sometimes a CPL

Sometimes a CPL filter will cut the exposure enough that you can make do without a ND filter and still get a "flowing" water look.

RPCrowe wrote in post #5357848
Sometimes a CPL filter will cut the exposure enough that you can make do without a ND filter and still get a "flowing" water look.

This is my personal preference, especially when there's sky in the shot.

And as an earlier poster pointed out, you don't need a shutter speed that's too long. This was 1/4th of a second:

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Make sure you shoot in the shade. Sunlight can kill you with blown highlights. .5 to 1 second is enough.

very nice shots Tom..