The development of molecules absorbing in the red and near-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum for light harvesting, photocatalysis, and bioimaging leads to interesting photophysics dictated by the energy gap law. Ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS) and time-resolved single photon counting are useful tools in the characterization of such molecules and understanding their excited state dynamics. Results from our group in characterizing red and near-infrared absorbing molecules for these applications will be presented.